Impact of new MBBS curriculum on the 1st year students and burden on teaching faculty: Are we making the balance?

Objectives: The Medical Council of India has introduced competency based medical education (CBME) for all the undergraduate medical students across the country. We conducted this study to assess the impact of new curriculum on students’ performance and the differential time utilization of the teaching faculty. Materials and Methods: It is a cross-sectional study conducted at ESIC Medical College and PGIMSR, Bengaluru during January to March 2020. The college has an intake of 100 under-graduate students for an academic year. The sources of data included internal marks of the students and a semi-structured questionnaire for teaching faculty. Results: The mean (range) marks obtained by the students of 2018-19 and 2019-20 batch were found to be (a) theory: 48.75 (7 to 83) and 50.71 (10 to 78) (b) practical’s: 64.88 (38 to 90) and 69.70 (30 to 93). The man hours per week-faculty for different teaching activities during 2018-19 and 2019-20 were as follows: (a) theory teaching: 6 (16%) (b) practical teaching: 12 (32%) (c) research activities: 6 (16%) (d) planning activities: 8 (21%) (e) administrative activities: 6 (16%). Conclusion: The newer MBBS curriculum is found to be promising for the medical students but it is taking a huge toll on the teaching faculty. Measures to promote research and faculty strength in the existing medical colleges should be prioritized by policy makers.