Abstract

*Dr. Narendra N. Ganguly MS, PhD and Dr. Rituparna Phukan Ray MD

ABSTRACT

Introduction- Teaching Medical science is a challenging subject. The fast progress of the Medical Science makes it even more challenging to keep the Students of Medical Sciences updated about the recent happenings in the world and outside. It is virtually difficult to teach the Medical students in all the aspects of the modern medical science and produce good well learned treating doctors within a short span of four and a half years. Especially, introduction of non treating branches in the final MBBS has compounded the problem. The paucity of time to teach the treating branches in the final year, before the students are allowed to treat the society, has caused confusion amongst the mind of certain teachers of the treating branches. In such a scenario, it is worth to look into the ancient methods of teaching, which are still relevant in today‘s world. This re-look into the past is needed to infuse new ideas into medical education methodology. Here we look into the Buddhist system of teaching. Review of literatures-A vast treasure house of literatures in Pali, Prakrit and later Sanskrit are taught to the Buddhist students. Although the journal publications are sparse, the books available are very useful in providing an insight to the Buddhist teaching methods. Following the strict and disciplined methods, the students learn without fail and spread the gist of Buddhism in the society around. So, it is worth to look into the methods of the teaching in this ancient system and see if some input can be made into the modern methodology of teaching in the modern Medical Education. It was found to be worth introducing some ideas from this style of teaching and introducing such ideas would improve the Medical education delivery in India and would certainly help the society subsequently. Discussion-The available literatures on the subject shed enough light to the success of the Buddhist teaching methods. Many of these steps can be incorporated in the teaching methodology in the Medical education in India. The recent introduction of the faculty development program by the MCI recently has opened up new questions. This may lead to the dilution of the criteria of the teachers of the teachers as a result the damage will be very deep and severe. We discussed some important steps as well as guidelines based on the highly successful Buddhist way of teaching in this article for incorporation into the MCI Medical education system. Conclusion- Buddhist teaching methods have survived the taste of time and Millennia. It is high time these principles be looked into and at least some ways should be utilized to propagate knowledge in the Medical education in India.