The second National Convention of Pharmacy Educators, organized under the Education division of the Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) at Coimbatore this week, has passed a resolution demanding to entrust the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) as the sole authority to regulate pharmacy education in the country.

A panel discussion, conducted as part of the symposia in the two-days meeting, stressed the need to bring the regulatory and curriculum planning authority for pharmacy education under one authority, the PCI. The Council should be the sole authority for planning a new structure of education, which will help pharmacists to perform competently with their counterparts in other countries, noted the meet.

A resolution passed in this regard said B.Pharm should be mandated as the minimum qualification for pharmacists. The basic benchmark in pharmacy education should be B.Pharm. Students who are interested to conduct higher studies can opt for M.Pharm and PhD. Such a systematic framework will help the Indian pharmacy students to have a uniform national standard in education and gain global acceptance, noted Dr. B Suresh, president, PCI, who was the moderator of the panel discussion.

"It does not mean that by upgrading minimum qualification to degree will destroy the diploma students and the institutions exclusively for diploma education. The system will never ignore diploma education, as they will get more opportunities as pharmacy assistants and drug dispensing pharmacists," Suresh told Pharmabiz. He said that there are many states in the country, where diploma pharmacists are not even available as per requirement. At present, two authorities handle the pharmacy education, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and PCI.

The resolution also suggested strengthening the B.Pharm course clinically to a certain extent (about 30%) to provide adequate clinical training and to stipulate minimum qualification for pharmacists as a bachelor degree.

The convention on 'Developing a new role for pharmacy educators in healthcare,' discussed various aspects of Pharmacy education, under the topics 'Regulation of pharmacy education in India', 'Upgradation of registration qualification for pharmacist' and the 'National framework for pharmaceutical education to meet global standards'.