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Pharmacy Council of India has recently announced a new syllabus for B. Pharm course and invited comments and suggestions before 25th September 2025. Just a month’s time is given to analyze, understand and frame opinion on the 340 pages document. Well, for teachers, the constant readers, it may not be difficult but for other stake holders who require interpretation and consultation it may be a problem. Heaven will not fall if some more time is given for the task delayed for decades! Nevertheless, let us discuss here the merits and demerits of the proposed syllabus which some people comment as old wine in new bottle, some others rightly say it is a cocktail!
No clearcut syllabus
PCI has announced it is going to start two distinct streams Industrial and Clinical Specializations by splitting existing B. Pharm course. But the published draft syllabus does not clearly reflect those objectives. It looks like mixture of those two streams as already existing. What prevented PCI in presenting two separate syllabuses we wonder. It says after 4th semester the two specializations will start, then what is the problem in announcing separate syllabuses for them for 5th to 8th semester? Why each year syllabus is not presented in separate table which is the normal practice? Why there is single complex tabular form for all the eight semesters together? Also, number of abbreviations are used, nowhere they are expanded or explained. It is left to the reader to guess or understand it on his own! PCI has decided to conduct B. Pharm course similar to B.E. with under graduate level specialization, then why can’t it look at the syllabuses of those universities, for example, Anna University, Chennai, where the syllabuses are nicely presented. No harm in following the forerunners!
Outside hands
A casual reading of the proposed subjects and their contents give the impression that it was not prepared by pharmacy teachers. It looks like some outside agency like, non-pharma academic, or information technology or education consultant has prepared it, because the syllabus picked up subjects as diverse as from Agriculture, Law, Management, Engineering, etc., as a cocktail! We doubt weather it is possible for pharmacy teachers to teach all of them. Will the PCI direct pharmacy colleges to appoint teachers from these fields to implement this syllabus, we worry. For example, the grace of last two years, - Artificial Intelligence - is extensively, almost in every semester, proposed in it. How can existing pharmacy teachers use it fruitfully we suspect. PCI has to arrange large number of refresher - no, new-courses for the present pharmacy teachers. Will they excel? To teach and to do practical in all these AI and Machine Learning subjects pharmacy colleges need to create extra computer labs and staff!
Confusion in admission
The syllabus is silent about lateral entry of D. Pharm students into B. Pharm. If it is assumed that they are admitted in second year or third semester as of now, what about left out subjects of first year? For example, “AI and Python programming for Pharmacy I” subject is there in first year B. Pharm. How and when to teach that left out subject, the draft syllabus has no answer. Similarly, the draft syllabus is not telling anything about admission eligibility. Will it permit students with Maths specialization in +2 to be admitted? If so what about Remedial Biology paper taught to them now? Why no slot is given for it in the draft? The same question arises for Remedial Maths subject for biology students or shall we assume only biology students are going to be admitted and remedial Maths subject is not required?
Million dollar questions
PCI has announced those students who leave after second year B. Pharm will be given Diploma in Pharmacy as per the National Education Policy. Just go through the draft syllabus of first two years of this B. Pharm course. Are the subjects in it sufficient to make a full pharmacist? A big no. First two year syllabus do not have the very very important subjects like Pharmacy Practice and Pharmaceutical Jurisprudence. Both are unavoidable and very much essential subjects for a pharmacist to practice, that is, they are actually the heart and soul of the carrier. PCI has presented a syllabus without them, that means a cadaver! That apart another important subject, “Business Management” which deals with basics of accountancy, book keeping and inventory control is missing in first 4 semesters. Remember they are taught now to D. Pharm students. Also, a new subject “Marketing Skill” useful for taking up Medical Rep job by D. Pharm holders too, is there in the 8th semester, not in first 4 semesters!
All these shows PCI or syllabus framers have not applied their mind or realized the impossibility of giving D. Pharm for drop outs! They just announced it to please their masters in Central government.
Impossible task
In this connection let me quote few lines from one of my another articles “Twice a year admission – exists, experience and exit” published in Pharmabiz on 22nd August 2024. “Because the policy [NEP] is impossible to implement for many courses, especially on professional courses, it is yet be implemented in many universities. In all professional courses only the fundamentals of that profession are taught during the first and second year. If a student drop outs during that period, how much knowledge he may have, about his profession? How can he practice that profession? Framing syllabus in such a way to give full professional knowledge during a short period is not at all easy, especially on a course designed for 4 years”
The above statement is now proved by this draft syllabus. Will the PCI silently bury that adventurous announcement of giving diploma for dropouts? It can impress our government by many other ways. Tell them, as a strong academic controller for 80 years and more, and custodian of profession that task is impossible! Instead convey ‘we are for upgradation of the profession by abolishing D. Pharm’ which is long overdue.
Re-presentation
We hope PCI will re-release the draft syllabus after making corrections pointed out here and by others also through e-mail. There after it should give sufficient time for comments and suggestions. PCI can implement its best proposal of under graduate level specialization in much better way. That is the purpose and motive of this article. Remember PCI, your deeds going to determine the fate of pharmacy profession and people for next few decades!
[The author is Ex-President, Indian Pharmacy Graduates Association, Madurai, Tamil Nadu]
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