What Next? Doctors find NEP proposals unhealthy

CHENNAI: The draft National Education Policy 2019 (NEP) has been a subject of controversy ever since its announcement in June this year. While it prompted widespread discussion and subsequent opposition on the imposition of three-language policy by the Centre, the proposed amendments to medical education have now caught the attention of the public and the medical fraternity alike. The ministry of human resource development has invited public opinion on the draft until July 31.

Doctors throughout the nation continue to be sceptical about the draft NEP, with several people from the medical fraternity even taking to protest against some of the DNEP proposals. Terming the draft policy ‘anti-people, anti-poor, and against federalism’ Dr Shanthi, Doctors Association for Social Equality, notes that the draft NEP has numerous regressive shortcomings.

She points out that the draft NEP has proposed to make Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog (RSA) as the sole custodian of the professional education system in India.  “This will pave way for authoritarianism in medical education,” she says.

The DNEP’s proposal to bring on board overseas researchers and professionals from the private sector as a solution to the existent faculty crisis in the nation has also faced criticism. This comes as a surprise, considering the fact that unemployment is a pressing issue in the nation currently, doctors say.

“The decision to provide total autonomy to educational institutions (both public and private) to fix their own fees will lead to the exploitation of students, especially the economically weaker classes,” explains Dr Shanthi.

Another much controversial aspect of the DNEP is the proposed integration of the various branches of medicine. “This will not only hampers the standard of medical education but also paves the way for unproven and pseudo-medical practices,” says a senior doctor.

The recommendation of DNEP to make National Exit Test (Next) mandatory for entrance into PG medical courses is one of the biggest flaws in the draft, argue doctors.  “This will shift the focus of students from learning the wider aspects of medical education and restrict their undergraduate education to solely clearing the final year Exit,” he adds.

The ‘medical pluralism’ promoted by DNEP through ‘bridge courses’ has also come under heavy criticism. By this, all science graduates will be studying a common foundational course designed uniformly for all branches in the first year. They can then take up specializations of their choice such as MBBS, BDS and  nursing. “This will produce sub-standard doctors and will lead to quackery and dilution of modern medical education,” says Dr Shanthi.

For long education system in India has been plagued by corruption, scams and malpractices. The previous National Educational Policy(NEP) was released 33 years ago in 1986.  The Centre’s decision and efforts to review and reform the three-decade-old education system is laudable and unarguably a step in the right direction. However, the success of the educational policy rests largely on incorporating the collective rightful sentiments of the nation’s citizens into the proposed policy as much as it does on transparent implementation and execution.