ISLAMABAD: A recent statement from the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) that suggested an integrated modular curriculum has alarmed public sector medical colleges, which believe the council is being misled.

Medical Teachers Association (MTA) General Secretary Dr Khurram Sohail Raja said private medical colleges have been trying to introduce an integrated modular system because it would reduce financial expenditure, but it would also affect the quality of education.

However, Pakistan Association of Private Medical and Dental Institutions (PAMI) General Secretary Khaqan Waheed Khawaja claimed that medical education could not develop in Pakistan unless a modular system is introduced.

In Pakistan, medical students are taught various subjects – such as surgery, biochemistry, nature of disease – in separate years. In an integrated system, students would study all the subjects at the same time.

Recent statement by PMDC says council’s ad hoc committee taking initiative on curricular reform

It has been claimed over the years that the World Federation of Medical Education (WFME) has announced that students who graduate after 2023 have to study through modern teaching strategies.

There is also a fear that if the instructions are not implemented, it will not be possible to send doctors abroad after 2023 to work.

In 2015, the PMDC – a member of the WFME – announced that it would introduce the integrated modular system. The council held seminars and announced that it would be involved in revising the medical and dental curriculum to meet international standards.

The WFME took the claims seriously, and in March last year the federation’s president Prof Dr David Gordon visited Pakistan and, in a statement issued by the PMDC that is available with Dawn, clarified that the WFME had not made it mandatory on medical schools to adopt the integrated modular medical curriculum and that any medical curriculum approved by the respective regulatory body could be adopted by medical schools.

Special Adviser to WFME Prof Dr Janet Grant also visited Pakistan, in December 2017, and said that the federation had not made it mandatory on any medical school to adopt any specific curriculum.

“We do not promote any particular approach to curriculum design, teaching and learning, or assessment,” she said, according to a statement issued by the council last year and available with Dawn.

A statement issued on Feb 9, claimed that the PMDC’s ad hoc committee had taken the initiative on curricular reforms.

It said that Khyber Medical University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Arshad Javed, in a presentation before the committee, emphasised the need for a revised curriculum in accordance with the WFME’s international standards.

The statement said that the council had unanimously decided that assistance would be sought from medical educationists in the country.

Committee chairman retired Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan said the new integrated modular curriculum would be student-centric and would also help undergraduates improve on their existing knowledge and clinical skills.

Speaking to Dawn, the MTA’s Dr Raja said that although the WFME had never said that Pakistan should switch to the modular system, private universities and colleges wished to do so.

He claimed that under the integrated system, one faculty member who was previously teaching one subject would have to teach around five subjects at a time because all of them would be merged.

There will also be fewer exams, and colleges will benefit financially because this system does not put as much focus on teachers, he added.

He said in an integrated system private colleges would be able to design their own practicals and include internal assessment, thereby allowing them to pass students of their choice.

He said the system would also reduce the PMDC’s control.

Mr Khawaja from PAMI said the integrated modular system is already being practiced for medical education in the United Kingdom, United States and India.

He said that while faculty members can simply give a lecture and leave in the conventional system, in the integrated system faculty members will have to take students to hospitals for practical knowledge from day one.

PMDC Registrar Dr Waseem Hashmi said the council has been trying to synchronise the curriculum with international standards, and various options are being considered in this regard.

“We have formed a committee for curriculum reforms and it will look into all systems. We do not want to force colleges to use the system of our choice. They can use any system, but we will make sure that the product, which is students, should be capable of competing at the international level. We will also ensure that the quality of our students would not be suffered,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2018