ISLAMABAD: The Medical Curriculum Review Committee of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) on Monday formed a sub-committee which will be submitting a report on how to bring the curriculum at par with international standards and one which will also fulfil national requirements as well.

Dr Amir Hussein Bandeshah, who is member of the council, told Dawn that the medical curriculum has to be reviewed every five years.

“It was reviewed in 2005 and in 2011 and now efforts are being made to review it again within six months. The World federation of Medical Education (WFME) has suggested that all regulatory bodies be made autonomous and be allowed to make their own curriculum,” he said.

Council tasks sub-committee to consider alternative education systems to bring medical education at par with international standards

“WFME also recommends improving the quality of education and producing better doctors by 2023,” he said.

Dr Bandeshah said that the meeting on Monday had decided that representatives from the Higher Education Commission and teachers will also be consulted for reviewing and implementing the curriculum.

He added that participants of the meeting had agreed that there was a need for faculty development programmes as well.

According to an official statement, the committee also deliberated the implementation of a modular system and talked about the problems faced by medical universities and their faculties.

The newly formed sub-committee was told to present a report on modular and hybrid curriculums.

A faculty member of a medical college said that WFME had only said that quality doctors be produced, and had not recommended switching to another educational system.

“There are two educational systems that are practiced, which are modular and discipline based curriculums. In the modular system, one subject is taught at a time and in discipline based systems, all subjects are taught at the same time”, he explained.

“A new theory has been proposed in Pakistan, that of a hybrid curriculum system which will be a mix of both the systems,” he added.

The teacher said that the committee should work on improving the quality of education, student to teacher ratios and infrastructure instead of changing the education system.

The new sub-committee which was formed on Monday will be headed by retired Major General Abdul Khaliq Naveed. Other members of the committee are Major General Jawad Khaliq Ansari, Prof Dr Ejaz Hassan, Prof Dr Mussadiq Khan and Dr Mussarat Hussein.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2016