India clamps down on pharmacy colleges lacking in faculty, infrastructure

Dearth of faculty a major problem in many pharmacy colleges, reveal PCI raids

Pharmacy Council of India (PCI), the statutory body to regulate the pharmacy profession and education in the country has initiated an action to clamp down on pharmacy colleges in some states  which are found running without adequate faculty or infrastructure.

As part of its drive to crack down on educational institutions flouting norms, PCI has conducted a series of inspections in pharmacy colleges  across the country, recently.

During these surprise inspections PCI found that a number of colleges belonging to north Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan were violating the rules and guidelines stipulated by the governing body.

The PCI inspections revealed that several pharmacy colleges in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan do not have adequate faculties to run the different courses they offer to students.

Lack of infrastructure remained a common problem in many of theses colleges. However, those institutions having proper buildings, equipment and other required facilities suffered from a serious dearth of teaching rendering the whole infrastructure useless.

PCI has slapped with show-cause notices to all these institutions which are identified violating norms set by the council asking them to explain the reasons for conducting such programmes within a period of time. 
 
According to PCI sources, the situation is the result of giving permission arbitrarily to start pharmacy colleges across the country without proper verification of the infrastructure and faculty by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) -  the statutory body, established for proper planning & co-ordinated development of technical education system throughout the country.

PCI is the statutory authority set up exclusively for the purpose of regulating pharmacy education in India. However, the pharmacy institutions are currently controlled by both AICTE and PCI. Maybe this dual nature of administration is behind the lack of proper surveillance and the falling standards in the pharmacy education in the country, experts said.

So, the only solution lies in delegating the powers to approve and regulate pharmacy colleges to PCI.

Pharmacy Council of India was constituted under section 3 of the Pharmacy Act, 1948, with the objective of regulating the Pharmacy education in the country for the purpose of registration as a pharmacist under the Pharmacy Act as well as regulating the profession and practice of pharmacy.

Functions and responsibilities of PCI include: prescribing minimum standard of education required for qualifying as a pharmacist; framing of education regulations prescribing the conditions to be fulfilled by the institutions seeking approval of the PCI for imparting education in pharmacy; ensuring uniform implementation of the educational standards throughout the country; inspecting pharmacy institutions seeking approval under the Pharmacy Act to verify availability of the prescribed norms; approving the course of study and examination for pharmacists i.e. approval of the academic training institutions providing pharmacy courses; withdrawal of approval, if the approved course of study or an approved examination does not continue to be in conformity with the educational standards prescribed by the PCI; approving qualifications granted outside the territories to which the Pharmacy Act extends and maintaining central register of pharmacists.