There’s good news for those wanting to study medicine. The duration of the MBBS course is expected to soon be shortened by a year. After following a “segmented curriculum” for years, the Medical Council of India (MCI) is considering a “competency-based” curriculum for undergraduate medical students.
The proposed curriculum focuses on developing skilled doctors through early clinical exposure, which is expected to result in shortening the duration of the existing five-and-a-half-year MBBS course.
The MCI academic council, which has been working on the new module, is expected to meet next week to finalise the new curriculum and send it to the government for final approval.
“The idea is to change the existing curriculum, which is not only segmented but lengthy as well, to a competency-based curriculum with a problem-based learning approach,” Dr Ved Prakash Mishra, chairman of the academic council of the regulatory body, told this newspaper.
According to experts, the current undergraduate curriculum did not provide adequate skills at an initial level. Students will be allowed to choose a subject and carry on with the subject in detail rather than focusing on every subject in detail.
The changes are in line with the Lancet commission report of 2007 that proposed a global transformative model of education
“There is no model which can be replicated as it is for our population. Hence, the best practices of the Lancet report and other developed countries are taken into consideration for the new module,” added Dr Ved Prakash Mishra, chairman of MCI academic council.
Experts say they are seriously considering shortening the MBBS duration and opine that the strategy will increase the availability of doctors.
“We feel the long duration is the demotivating factor for students. With the introduction of speciality segregation at an initial stage we are aiming to cut short the course by at least a year,” Dr Mishra said.
According to a medical expert, “Once the students are given enough information on the human anatomy, they will be allowed to go ahead with the area of their choice in detail. We feel that if a student at a very initial stage gets to know that he would want to be an ophthalmologist, then where is the need for him to know about liver replacement, etc. Without sacrificing the subjects, the new curriculum will give students freedom, making it more radical for them.
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