Pharmacy education at the Institute of Pharmacy at the Regional Institute of Paramedical and Nursing Sciences (RIPANS) in Mizoram in the north east is marred by acute shortage of permanent faculties in various capacities and lack of facilities for industrial training for students.
 
Due to the apathy of the union government in creating permanent posts, the lone government pharmacy institution, which provides degree and PG programmes, runs courses with the support of contractual faculties, sources from the institute said.
 
RIPANS was established in 1994 by government of India as an autonomous body to cater to the much needed paramedical, nursing and pharmacy professionals for the north eastern region. This is the only government institution providing degree level pharmacy education in the state of Mizoram at present. One institute in the private sector, Laithangpuii Institute of Pharmacy, is conducting diploma course. The institute is affiliated to State Higher & Technical Education Department of the government of Mizoram.

Interacting with Pharmabiz, Dr.H Lalhlenmawia, Head of Department of Pharmacy at RIPANS, which is located at Aizawl, said the common problem faced by the lone government pharmacy institution in Mizoram is lack of sufficient permanent faculties in various capacities. “All the teachers have the required qualifications prescribed by the PCI for the post of Assistant Professors, Associate Professors and Professors. But government of India has not sanctioned various capacities of posts till date. Because of this, the college employs people on contract basis. A lot of qualified people are in Mizoram, but the government is not creating the posts which impedes the absorption of the contractual staff,” he said.
 
Every year, 38 graduates in pharmacy are coming out of RIPANS and 60 diploma holders from the private pharmacy college. In total there are two pharmacy institutions in Mizoram.
 
Regarding number of students who seek admissions to B Pharm and M Pharm programs,  Dr Lalhelnmawia said so far the institute did not face any shortage of students and it admits students to the maximum number. Similarly, all the faculties are well qualified.
 
The College is equipped with many sophisticated equipments as the government is giving enough fund for their procurement. Currently, most of the equipment prescribed by PCI are available at the college and the ministry has already approved for procurement of the state-of-the-art liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) for our college.
 
To a question, the professor said since there is no pharma industry in Mizoram, the students at the college rarely get chance for industrial training. The college has no tie-up with any manufacturing company. However, the teachers take the students to manufacturing units in Hyderabad and Patna for training purpose.
 
Responding to a question on quality of education, Dr. Lahlenmawia said, “As of today, the quality of education is good, but we are trying to improve year by year. However, there are many lapses in pharmacy education here due to unavailability of pharma manufacturing units and permanent teachers”.