|
All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has recently announced a wonderful scheme to teach engineering students better. It has decided to allow engineering faculty members to do industry fellowship for one year. The AICTE will pay Rs. 75,000 a month to faculty members, the industry will pay Rs. 25,000. “We are planning to give 1000 fellowships and expect a large number of applications under the scheme” said AICTE chairman.
Why is it wonderful scheme?
At present, faculties without single day’s experience in industry are teaching industry-oriented subjects in our pharmacy colleges. Hence, only the theory is taught to the students and the faculty are unable to operate or demonstrate, even the lab scale apparatuses and equipment kept in college labs. Result is for anybody to guess. Often, pharma industry people are complaining that pharmacy graduates are not industry ready and hence not employable. The root cause is here. They should address it. Thus, a scheme similar to the above AICTE announcement will go a long way to solve the problems of the pharma industry.
The excuse or escape
The faculty of pharmacy colleges without industry experience used to escape with the argument that not all the B. Pharm students are seeking job in pharma industry, there are lot of other avenues. So why should we unnecessarily burden ourselves and students they ask. To certain extend it is true, but think of the future of the students, with mere theory knowledge and zero practical exposure. Theory can be better understood only with practical and hands on experience. Only the people with such experience knows its value and they appreciate it.
Another recent excuse, God sent, for these faculties is, boys and girls ratio in a class. Now-a-days a greater number of girl students - sometimes more than 60% of a class - are joining in pharmacy courses. They are not ready or willing to work in industry as those jobs are considered masculine in nature, handling labour and all not suitable for women they think. But they conveniently forget that there are jobs in industry for women pharmacy graduates also, especially in QA & QC, and R&D departments, where they need to operate or handle sophisticated apparatuses and equipment. Remember majority of pharmacy colleges are not allowing their students or even staff to operate costly instruments, as they are kept just for inspection purpose. Again, costly or quality chemicals are not purchased by almost all pharmacy colleges, as they think it is an unnecessary expense. All these indicates the pathetic situation and consequent unemployable position of students and also the need for industrial training.
Industrial training
What is the result of above situation in pharmacy colleges? First of all, students are not willing, not interested, not confident or fearful to accept an industry job. Hence even after opening thousands of private pharmacy colleges in India, there is shortage of skilled man power for industry! Hence industry should train the required men for their own benefit. Some industrialists think instead of training a raw pharmacy graduate, why not a science graduate from arts college, it is one and the same they believe. Another benefit is less salary can be given to a science graduate. Pharmacy graduate may leave the company at any time after training, but not the science graduate as they are loyal to the company which offered training and job to them. Thus, poor practical knowledge of the pharmacy students leads to the invasion of non-pharmacy people into the pharma industry and the D&C act permit it!
Compulsory industrial training
The argument for and against compulsory industrial training like House Surgency for doctors is going on for the last half a century and more. Those who are against, always put forth the fact that lot of other job opportunities are available for pharmacy graduates. Hence ‘wasting’ one year in industrial training is a sin! True! That was an old debate point, now a days, senior professors point out there is not enough capacity in Indian pharma industry to train thousands of pharmacy graduates coming out every year from hundreds of colleges opened in the last few decades. That is also true! Then what to do?
Way out
Giving or providing industrial training only for those who opt for it is the solution to the problem. That means some sort of elective subject should be there in B. Pharm course. Let the students select their carrier during their course itself as in engineering [BE] discipline. Yes, under graduate level specialization is the solution for many problems discussed above. Pharmacy council of India has indicated, it is going to split B. Pharm course into two, B. Pharm [Industrial] and B. Pharm [Clinical], twice in the recent past. But yet to proceed, for the reason best known to them. This author has proposed it in 2003 itself, some 22 years back in his first article [ it is my 65th] titled “Re-energizing Pharmacy Education - A Proposal” - Pharmabiz dated 14. 8. 2003. Are the people in PCI not aware of the damages this delay costs to the profession? The benefits of splitting B. Pharm course are many, cannot repeat all here. One benefit is burdening students with more and more subjects by stuffing the syllabus and making the student master of none can be avoided. As the science develops day by day introducing new or more specialization is what wisemen do.
Start now, to shine later!
To teach students from B. Pharm Industrial course, let us prepare faculty with industry experience beforehand. Make it compulsory for faculties teaching Pharmaceutics subject, at least. Then Pharmaceutical Chemistry staff can also be sent for industrial fellowship as proposed by AICTE above. Other department staff can wait as PCI may not have money to pay stipend to all staff at a time. If required the colleges whose staff are undergoing training can be instructed to pay some part of the salary, say 25%, as PCI is not as rich as AICTE.
Reserve at least one job!
Studying pharmacy subjects for 4 years and more and loosing all pharma industry jobs to non-pharmacy people is ridiculous and utter foolishness. Damage has been done for decades, hence at least reserve one job - the manufacturing of drug formulations – to pharmacy graduates, as no other course teaches it. Here too peoples with [fake] experience certificates are encroaching as cancer. Wake up before it is too late, dear pharmacy graduates and PCI.
(The author is ex president, Indian Pharmacy Graduates Association, Madurai, Tamil Nadu)
|