PRESS NOTE

NMC starts its innings on a wrong foot

The National Medical Commission, which replaced the tainted Medical Council of India, has
already courted controversy in its first innings. In its recent gazetted notification on 28th
October titled Minimum Requirements for Annual M.B.B.S. Admissions Regulations, 2020, the
percentage of non-medical teachers in the three pre-clinical specialties of Anatomy,
Biochemistry, and Physiology have been halved from 30 to 15% whereas the non-medical
teachers have been completely eliminated from the para-clinical specialties of Pharmacology
and Microbiology. The non-medical teachers, who are scientists with medical M.Sc/Ph.D.
qualifications in these specialties are agitated by this decision. The NMC was expected to
adopt the guidelines from the erstwhile MCI. The first draft guidelines were the adoption of
the MCI's guidelines, which had stated, "In department of Anatomy, Physiology,
Pharmacology, and Microbiology, non-medical teachers may be appointed to the extent of
30% of the total number of posts in the department. However, in the department of
Biochemistry, non-medical teachers may be appointed to the extent of 50% of the total
number of posts in the department". The NMC sought feedback from the stakeholders over
its proposed guidelines. The non-medical teachers have been taken by surprise over the U-
turn taken by the NMC. Some sections of the medical teachers have been clamoring for the
elimination of the scientists from the medical colleges. The contributing factors attributed to
this change are competition for teaching jobs and the introduction of the new competency
based curriculum.
The appointment of non-medical teachers in the medical colleges dates back to the 1960s,
when the Mudaliar committee recommended opening up M.Sc courses to the science
graduates so as to create teachers for teaching medical students in the non-clinical subjects.
The MCI regulated these courses and used to accord permission to the medical colleges to
start these courses. Over time, MCI abandoned regulating these courses and their mention
went missing from the First Schedule of the IMC Act of 1956. At some point in time around
95 medical colleges used to run these courses; now only 35 do so. Medical M.Sc courses are
conducted in the medical colleges based on the same curriculum and syllabus as those of MD
courses in the non-clinical subjects. With more and more doctors pursuing MD courses in
these non-clinical specialties, the competition for jobs has heated up and therefore the
demands to halt the appointment of scientists. Despite this, there are still vacancies for
teachers in several medical colleges across India, especially the newly established ones and
the ones located in hilly, remote, and rural areas. In such medical colleges, the bulk of the
teaching and diagnostic works (including COVID19 testing) are undertaken by the scientist
teachers.
The gazetted document clearly states that the guidelines would be applicable for medical
colleges being established from the academic session 2021-22 onwards. Despite this, there is
fear and uncertainty among the community of non-medical teachers as they fear that these
guidelines would be illegally extended to the existing medical colleges. There is no clarity from
the NMC over its application. Although the MCI collected data of every teacher from all the
affiliated medical colleges, it has no data on the number of non-medical teachers. It is
estimated that there could be 4000-5000 non-medical teachers working under the
designations ranging from Professors & HOD to Tutors. At the same time, thousands of
students are pursuing medical M.Sc courses hoping to get employed in medical colleges. With
the implementation of these guidelines, they have lost a major employment opportunity.
While these amended guidelines have brought cheers to a section of the non-clinical doctors,
it has created ripples in the scientists' communities.
"The appointment of non-medical teachers to teach the non-clinical subjects is neither new
nor unique to India", said Dr. Shridhar Rao, President of the National M.Sc Medical Teachers'
Association (NMMTA). "It is a widespread practice across several countries to employ
scientists as teachers in medical colleges. In some top medical schools of the West, 50-60% of
teachers are scientists", he added. "Medical M.Sc courses are not only similar to the MD
courses, but the students of Medical M.Sc courses study human anatomy, physiology, and
biochemistry in addition just as the first year MBBS students do. We are not laypersons as it
is projected to be. Although our graduate degrees are different, our postgraduate degrees
are similar and our practice is based on our postgraduate teaching. We are wrongly called
non-medical teachers; we have been awarded Medical M.Sc degrees under the faculty of
Medicine by the health universities", said Mr. Arjun Maitra, Secretary, NMMTA. "Like our
medical colleagues, we too have undergone the mandatory training on the implementation
of the new competency based curriculum and we are capable and confident of imparting the
teaching as envisaged by the NMC" stated Dr. Shridhar. "Instead of shunting us out, there
must be more efforts to train and integrate us. We can consult the clinical colleagues for
inputs on the horizontal and vertical integrations", he added.
This controversy is not new. In 2018, the MCI made a proposal to halve and halt the
appointment of non-medical teachers. The board of governors had junked this proposal
bringing relief to thousands of scientists. But this bogey has come back to haunt them. The
scientists feel that despite being in the system for several decades, their voices are not heard.
"We never had a representation in the MCI, neither do we have in the NMC. We are a minority
but there are no checks in place to protect the interests of the minorities. Our please are often
ignored and we are treated as non-existing entities", stated Mr. Maitra. "Any scientific
discipline grows when different backgrounds contribute. It would be in the best interest of
medical education to have faculties from diverse backgrounds. Let the system have the best
of both", added Dr. Rao. "We request the government to take note of our precarious position,
safeguard our interests and provide us justice by reinstating the previous MCI norms", said
Dr. Rao with optimism. The scientists' community feels that the government must have a
nuanced policy on the utility and conduct of Medical M.Sc courses with the formation of a
council to regulate the courses and register the members providing professional services in
diagnostic laboratories.
To an unstarred question posed in the Lok Sabha in 2018, "whether thousands of non-medical
teachers who are already working in medical colleges are facing any threat to their jobs",
Ashwini Kumar Choubey, the minister of state in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
had replied, "does not arise". The scientists' community wonders if the ministry intends to
remain true to its words.
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