MEDICAL EDUCATION IN INDIA

Medical Education in India :
                              Medical Education in India is also given an important consideration 
     from an international point of view. The  Medical Council of India (MCI) controls medical Education in India.All States and all Universities or Colleges that give medical education is monitored and timely inspected by the Medical Council of India every year.
                           They allow colleges or universities to grant MBBS, MS, MD, BDS, MDS or any Graduate or PG degree or diploma provided those colleges are strictly adhering to the standards set by the Medical Council of India.
                          The MBBS course is of four and a half year’s and is followed by one year of Compulsory Rotating Residential Internship. The course is taken in three stages, following a short foundation course which provides basic principles of Communication, Ethics and Problem Based Learning. The first stage is for 12 months and covers the basic sciences of Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry. The next stage is for 18 months and includes Pharmacology, Pathology, Microbiology and Forensic Medicine.
               Any education in degree level or postgraduate or PG level in Medicine is either 
classified into medicine or Dental. Both are controlled and monitored by Medical council and Dental council, separately.
               A student has to keep a watch over the medical, dental and engineering entrance tests conducted in India by various States and Universities, if he or she has to get Admission to such courses. Usually the time for such tests will be around a couple of months earlier than the month in which the actual courses start in Medical Schools. The time a new academic year begin in India is usually the month of July.Excellence in medical education is not merely a vertical expansion and achievements. Maximum improvement of health, and relief of suffering within available resources should be our goal. There is thus a clear need to set up innovative models and bring about qualitative changes.
All this means a certain collective approach on the part of the medical faculty which is at present divided into rigid departments. This can be done by establishing a medical education cell, if not a department, in every medical college. The staff for this should be deputed by rotation from different departments for fixed period of 1-2 years. This cell should constantly review the methods of teaching, changing of curriculum, preparation of materials like audio-visual aids. Such a cell should also have a responsibility of conducting seminars and symposia, so that the medical teacher learns how to teach. We have for long assumed that a good student will become a teacher by simply observing another teacher. This has only produced stagnation.