NMC’s Vision for Medical Education in India
The keynote address by Abhijat Sheth, chairman of the National Medical Commission (NMC), at the 86th foundation day of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) in Hyderabad, outlined crucial aspects of enhancing India's medical education system.
Key Challenges and Plans
- Ensuring Quality and Quantity:
- The primary challenge is balancing the expansion of MBBS seats with maintaining high-quality education standards.
- Plans are underway to expand MBBS seats to 1.23 lakh for the academic year 2025-26.
- Postgraduate Opportunities:
- Focus on improving postgraduate opportunities to ensure every undergraduate can pursue further education.
- Addressing faculty shortages and divided learning resources is critical for postgraduate training.
- Ideal undergraduate to postgraduate seat ratio is 1:1.
Examination and Training Reforms
- Examination Patterns:
- Calls for reforming exam patterns to reduce excessive negative marking while ensuring fair evaluation.
- Competency-Based Education:
- Emphasizes the integration of skill labs, virtual training, digital learning, and AI applications.
- Communication skills, medical ethics, empathy, and clinical research to be core components.
Institutional and Regulatory Reforms
- Simplifying Accreditation:
- Plans to ease outdated requirements and simplify accreditation processes.
- Aim to allow institutions to focus on teaching and student support.
- Balanced Regulation:
- Recognizing medical talent and improving coordination between national and State bodies is essential.
Future Tasks and Vision
- Three Key Tasks for NMC:
- Address numerical expansion in a balanced manner.
- Ease unnecessary barriers to education and infrastructure.
- Reinforce quality in learning, teaching, and infrastructure.
- Institutional Support:
- Providing hostels and adequate support for younger undergraduate students remains a priority.
