PCI grants to start 80 more new pharmacy colleges in Rajasthan

To create a skilled and talented pool of pharmacy professionals to contribute services to the health sector of Rajasthan, the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) has granted permission to start 80 more new institutions in the state, sources informed. The institution managements are now waiting for the approvals of respective universities to kick off operations from next academic year, sources added. All the new pharmacy colleges are busy working to speed up the processes of registration and admissions, and also to open the academic activities from next academic year.

The inspections of the PCI are going on in the new centres, says Dr. Deshbandhu Joshi, a senior member of the APTI and professor of pharmaceutics at Shrinathji Institute of Pharmacy at Nathdwara in the state. With the arrival of eighty more new colleges the number of pharmacy institutions in Rajasthan will cross 200. “Although the number of pharmacy colleges is increasing every year, most of the institutions are conducting only diploma courses. Students prefer to take admissions only for D Pharm and very few of them want to join the degree course (B Pharm).

However, for the diploma course almost all the institutions get the maximum number of students, but for the degree colleges, it is too difficult to fulfill the maximum intake”, said the APTI leader. Talking to Pharmabiz, Dr. Deshbandhu said about 120 pharmacy institutions are currently working across the state. In addition to this, some universities are also conducting pharmacy courses from diploma to post-graduation.He said, the quality of education in Rajasthan is much better compared to other institutions in north India or southern states, but teachers are not getting good salaries in any of the institutions.

Dr. Deshbandhu who was previously working in Gujarat left the job and joined Shrinathji Institute of Pharmacy at Nathdwara said the burning issues of pharmacy teachers are one and the same in every part of the country and either the APTI or the governments do not try to solve them.He said the salary issue is a major problem faced by teachers all over the country. In Rajasthan only a few universities give good salaries to the teachers. Secondly no institution implements the cadre ratio of the teachers and provides benefits as per it.The Association of Pharmacy Teachers of India is silent on this issue in Rajasthan also.When asked about the qualifications and eligibility of faculty members, he said the faculty members of each college are sufficiently qualified and talented, but their wages are insufficient.

In diploma colleges, as per the PCI norms, a B Pharm graduate with three years experience in teaching can become a teacher. Institution managements prefer to appoint this level of faculty members and avoid post-graduates and Ph D holders. However, institutions running M Pharm courses appoint highly qualified and specialized faculties on very good packages. He further said, the PCI is strict in implementing cadre ration for teachers and disbursement of salaries accordingly, but the college managements are not in favour. “Many new things are arriving from PCI to maintain the cadre ration and more developments will happen very soon”, he expressed the hope by adding that he will meet the PCI president in this regard.