Diagnosing What Ails Medical Education

Context: Confusion over policy for human resource development and economic policy in medical education is a?ecting quality, equity and integrity.

Significant aspects of the New Education Policy

• Aim:
• To provide universal access to quality education. 
• Bridge the gap through undertaking major reforms that bring the highest quality, equity and integrity into the system,
• Emphasizes quality and holistic learning.
• In medical education: It aims to train health care professionals primarily required from working in primary care and secondary hospitals.

• Ambitious targets

• Outcome Sought in higher education is more than just the creation of greater opportunities for individual employment. It represents the key to a more vibrant, socially engaged, cooperative communities and happier, cohesive, cultured, productive, innovative, progressive, and prosperous nation.

Issues with medical education in India

• Presence of Private entities: The failure of government in managing the challenge to expand educational opportunities while simultaneously addressing the issues of quality and equity gave way for private entities.

• Neglects equity: 

• Private education is not available in all parts of the country.
• Poor quality of education and high costs generates inequity for poor students.
• Rent-seeking, Profiteering, and Commercialisation of Education creates hurdles for poor students

• Failure of the organs of State in ensuring quality and equity:

• Regulations of fees have been on and off, sometimes by government and sometimes by the courts, but the results have been patchy.
• Failure of the erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI) in regulating private education.
• Judicial Randomness: Some judges wished to ensure quality and equity, others gave importance to the law on the rights of private parties and federalism.

• The tussle between ensuring Human resource development and economic policies:

• On the one hand, the Ministry of Human Resources Development repeatedly says that quality and equity are the cornerstones of a good education. 
• On the other, the economic policies consider education a consumer good which can be sold to the highest bidder.

• National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) has worsened equity:

• Low number of students from government schools: Since the higher fees in the private colleges have always been a hurdle for poor students of government schools

• Absence of a high-quality school system: creates disability for the poor students.

Way Forward: 

• Justify NEET: Allowing government medical colleges to admit students based on marks in Standard XII and using NEET scores for admission to private colleges will be more equitable.

• Need for a political resolve: Only a resolute government, determined to ensure that economic policy facilitates quality and equity in education, can do it.