As a part of its 50th national pharmacy week celebrations, the Andhra Pradesh Pharmacy Council (APPC) will organise a marathon walk in Hyderabad with about 5000 pharmacists on November 20, 2011. As a part of the celebrations, APPC is stressing on creating awareness among the masses with a popular slogan “I am a Pharmacist”.

As is seen in the recent past that there is a declining trend among the students opting for admissions in pharmacy courses, the APPC along with pharma institutions and industry have taken up the cause of creating awareness about the importance of a pharmacists to the society.

Over the past few years, due to mushrooming of engineering colleges in the state, the pharmacy profession has lost its sheen as many students are opting for engineering or medical courses and ignoring pharmacy course as they feel it is less professional.

In the recent past, the quality of students emerging out of pharmacy institutes in the state has also become a matter of concern, because not many students who are pursuing B. Pharm have their innate interest into the profession, but rather they have taken admission to the course only as a leftover choice after they did not get an admission either in engineering or medicine.

Most of the students who have been admitted in pharmacy courses during the last academic year have EAMCET (Engineering and Medical Common Entrance Test) ranks over and above one lakh. This implies meritorious students are not opting for the pharmacy course because of which the quality is affected.

Policy makers and opinion leaders in the state have been promoting engineering and medicine over the past few years. This has created a wrong impression among the students about pharmacy as a lesser professional course. Adding to this, the parents too have been pushing their wards mindlessly to take up either engineer or a doctor course, as if there is no profession apart from them for living a quality high profile life.

On the whole because of this attitude of the parents, it has not only impacted admissions in pharmacy courses but it has also increased pressure on the minds of the students, as they have been pushed to take intensive coaching until they crack in top ranks in EAMCET.

“In view of most pharmacy education institutions witnessing only single digit admissions in the previous academic year, we are focusing to promote pharmacy education and creating awareness in the society. For this we are planning to take out a marathon walk on tank bund with about 5000 pharmacists on 20th November, one day before celebrating the 50th “National Pharmacist week. This time we have come out with a slogan called “I am a Pharmacist”. Our main intention is to create awareness among the masses about the importance of a pharmacist. We want to tell that pharmacists are not less than any engineer or a doctor, they are also equally important for the society,” said, Annappareddy Vijayabhasker Reddy, president APPC.