KARACHI, Oct 4: Sindh health minister Ahsan Ahmed has underlined the need for adopting community-oriented medical education curriculum saying a majority of countries across the globe have developed their curricula, based on their own needs with the objective of training medical graduates.

“This approach has also been used in the present popular teaching called the Problem-Based Learning Methodology which exposes students to real life problems making learning a life-long phenomenon”, he said while speaking at the National Consultation Meeting, organized by the National Coordinator and Task Force of COME at a local hotel.

The minister lamented that in public sector medical colleges, the old Flexner Model of Curriculum was still being followed. However, the Britain which initiated this model had already done away with it, thus embracing the new modernised community-oriented medical education.

He said Pakistan is a signatory to the Edinburgh declaration and had vowed to incorporate COME in medical education, besides the strategies of this curriculum, the needs of the country are different and so are the people and the change had been delayed for long.

He assured of the government’s support for implementing COME-PBL curriculum.

He expressed his deepest hope that the COME curriculum would be implemented.—PPI