NEEED OF SKILLS DEVELOPMENT IN PHARMACEUTICAL CURRICULUM _An essay by Shefali Ahuja

In the world of developing globalization and advancement, Pharmacy Education needs a reform. The current Pharmacy Education System is producing the amateurish personalities with laggard minds. Education system is giving more emphasis on theoretical lectures rather on practical skill development. Students have been taught the old traditional practical knowledge which has no relevance with skills that are actually required in industries.  A number of colleges do not meet the instrumental needs of current requirement.

About 90 per cent of the employment opportunities require the vocational skills. Excepting 5 percent of graduates, other won’t get employment in industries; such students either have to go for industry driven training programs or get job in basic data entering-editing or a low paid labour. In this era of innovations, companies need innovative plus skilled minds; who won’t find any hardship to apply their academic knowledge in industries while working; they should also have managerial skills, team working, conversational skills, and basic computer skills. So for developing such employable skilled minds two main factors of education system play important role. The first one is that the pedagogy should be practical and the second one is the reformation of curriculum.

Current scenario of education system:

As per the Education Regulation (Drug and Cosmetics act, Government of India) numbers of hours for practical should be 100 for the major subjects such as pharmaceutics and pharmaceutical chemistry for diploma course. The officials make the time table in accordance with the rules laid down in Education Regulations but they are rarely followed strictly. Moreover, the nature of practical work described under Education Regulations never match with the practical work carried out labs. There is lack of instrumental exposure at grauation level.

Co-curricular activities are as much as important as studies. This brings out ones innovative and creative corner, students learn how to work together in groups and how to manage such situations. Cultural events and annual fiesta are hardly organized in pharmacy colleges due to which an artist within a pharmacist never gets the chance to be seen by mass. Sports develop leadership qualities, team working ability and stress management qualities in one. Though some students may participate in these activities but due to lack of uniform opportunities all students cannot participate. Some elite colleges promote co-curricular activities along with academic studies but the situation is worst in other colleges.

If education is a bird then training programs, workshops, educational\industrial tours, seminars, conferences and A\V tutorials are wings of that bird. One cannot be trained without participating in such activities. This is the major sink point of our curriculum that such activities are never included. Exposure to real working conditions and the growing world of technical instruments is necessary for developing skills in a student.

India is a country with diversity in its languages and traditions; the same conditions can be found in educational institutes. Though a uniform official language i.e. English is supposed to be followed but due to lack of any tutorials students from country side cannot adapt to that. The proportion of such students is 8/10 and it’s really hard to believe but it is the truth. Language is the interface of one’s intellectual thinking and his work but it’s pathetic for progress of an individual that the same language becomes barrier for his work.

Any field of this world hardly left to touch the vibe of information technology and pharmacy is also unimpaired. At any point of their career students have to get familiar with technology but it would be very easy to learn such things if they are included in curriculum. Though it is described under Education Regulations to have a subject on computer applications during under graduation program but practical knowledge is hardly given to students, even very few colleges have developed computer labs with latest version of system and facility of wireless fidelity. Unwillingly, students have to do diploma courses in IT from private institutes to which is sometimes costly too.

The loop holes:

As there are very less job opportunities in pharmaceutical field, many students opt to run their pharmacies after graduation which gives them not only sufficient money but also they work in their comfort zone. If this shifting of pharmacists from industrial area to pharmacies would have been carried for a decade then there could be a time that we would have a new pharmacy in each lane.

In last decade, pharmacy field has become research oriented. The pharmacists have become drug developer and patent holder. But the current scenario is a different picture; the old patents are expiring and very few drugs are being discovered. So the old patents have to be replaced by new patents and this has opened new gates for pharmacists in industry driven research and development. Again the research and development field requires skilled and experienced pharmacist. Considering the current situation of pharmacy education there are no skilled mind being developed and in future India’s drug industries would have to depend upon foreign patents.

What should be the change?

There must be options provided in curriculum for vocational courses at the initial level and students should be counseled for the importance and requirement of such courses. Many much courses such as marketing course; certain management, language and IT courses can be added and student should be given liberty to choose the course of their interest.

Learning can be enhanced by audio-visual lectures, industrial visits, workshops, seminars, conferences, participation in industry driven projects and training. Certain counseling session for need of skill development should be organized at institutional level.

Certain projects can also be included at graduation level which enhances the practical knowledge of students. Handling of at least one instrument such as NMR, FTIR, FT-NMR, etc. should be included in syllabus of each semester and institutes should support each other in this regard.

A Complete Quality Skill Development (CQSD) includes not only developing the skills required to grab a great job but it also includes developing an innovative mind with entrepreneurship skills. This would obviously require analysis and exposure of individual personalities at global level. So that students can be innovative but not imitators. In the current scenario, Pharmacy Education is known for the research and development not only in the field of medicines but also in exploring the intervened chains of human body at molecular level. This requires a thorough knowledge and practical skills along with leadership skills. So, the idea of CQSD also includes developing such research oriented minds which can work for the betterment of Pharmacy Field, for society, for world and the prime is for humanity.