A PROPOSAL FOR THE REVIVAL AND ADVANCEMENT OF AYURVEDA EDUCATION - Editorial

Abstract

It was on December 9th, 2012 that an Ayurveda Education Summit was held in Bhopal,Madhya Pradesh, as a part of the 5th World Ayurveda Congress. Ten panelists possessing expertise in administration and research in the field of Ayurveda education were present during the summit.The authors of the present piece of ‘editorial’ too were the participants in the event as panelists.Given the present status of Ayurveda education in India, we think it is worth recapitulating the major recommendations of the said summit. These proposals are especially pertinent on the eve of the 6th World Ayurveda Congress scheduled to be held in November 2014. In this editorial, we present a re-drafted summary of the major recommendations that emerged during the summit.We hope that the relevant points are taken up by the Department of AYUSH and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for future course of action. RAISE THE STANDARDS OF GRADUATE LEVEL AYURVEDA EDUCATION It has been noted that the extent of practical exposure to various clinical skills is the most important lacuna in the current system of graduate-level education in Ayurveda sector. Teaching is generally perceived as memory oriented instead of being analysis, skill and understanding oriented. RE-WORK THE MINIMUM STANDARD REGULATIONS Further, the department of AYUSH needs to re-consider the Minimum Standard Regulations That have been notified in 2012. They have led to a dilution in the rigor of the various educational programs. It is worth noting that there has also been uproar against these regulations in the recent past by the teachers and the students which has led to some modifications in these regulations.However, it is to be noted that such policy decisions must consider the welfare of the students andthe teachers with an aim of improvising the overall standards of education. Therefore, there is a need for incorporating a few external members possessing expertise in educational policy in the Education Committee of the Central Council of Indian Medicine Establish local PPTAs (Parent-Patient (Public)-Teacher Associations) at each college level It has been observed that the practice of appointing teachers only ‘on documents’ and not actually recruiting them physically in many colleges, is diluting the standards of education. Similarly,some institutions though register (admit on paper) students, don’t actually teach and train them.These students rarely attend their duties in theses colleges and turn up only during the examinations and inspections. As a result, the data in the dissertations submitted by these students are not reliable.This practice of ‘on-paper teachers’ and ‘on-paper students’ must be stopped. To address this,establishment of PPTA’s needs to be made mandatory. These associations must be entrusted upon with the responsibility of reporting all academic misconduct by students, administration and teachers to the concerned University, State Government and the department of AYUSH. The representative of PETA’s must be allowed to meet and interact with the University, State Government and CCIM inspection committees.