THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Government is in search of that elusive medical entomology post-graduate to fill a faculty position in the state’s medical college. And the Kerala PSC, which notified the vacancy on April 16, has extended the last date for application, for the third time.It is not just the repeated extensions that had brought this notification to the limelight but the qualification prescribed for a medical teaching post. The required qualification for the post has been notified as either an MSc in Entomology or an MSc in Medical Entomology or an MSc degree in Zoology.The Medical Council of India (MCI) had issued specific guidelines for appointment as medical college teachers and a basic MBBS degree is a must for all candidates except for those who teach statistics.The MCI also directs that in the departments of anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and pharmacology, non-medical teachers can be appointed to the extent of 30 percent of the total posts in the department. Any relaxation on this calls for an approval from the MCI.Besides, a post-graduation course in entomology is generally based on agriculture and medical entomology post-graduation course is a very rare phenomenon, especially in India. Director of Medical Education Dr V Geetha said that the present notification from the PSC was based on an executive government order.“As per the MCI norms, the post has to be filled by a candidate who has qualified MD in community medicine. We had requested the government to amend that order and we had attached the representations made by various organisations on this. It would take sometime for the new amended order to be issued,” Geetha said. While the notification from the PSC insists on zoology post-graduates having either a first class or a second class, the entomology post-graduates and medical entomology post-graduates have no such parameters. Same is the case with the experience of the candidates.While the zoology post-graduates need to have five years experience in medical entomology in a medical college, there are no specifications for entomology post-graduates. There is not even any mention about the UGC-NET clearance that is mandatory for any teaching post as per the UGC.“This has happened because a technical post is converted into a teaching post. Generally in other states, entomology is not a teaching post. This might even create problems in the case of an MCI inspection,” said Dr S S Santhoshkumar, president of the Confederation of Medical College Doctors.Sources in the medical community said that there were at least 164 such posts in medical colleges where a masters degree has been specified as the only requirement while the MCI clearly said that only MBBS doctors should be appointed as teachers in medical colleges.
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