Shahin Bepari Lambe
Panaji
Doctors at Goa Medical College (GMC) are facing prolonged career stagnation under the existing five-tier promotion system, with several remaining in the same designation for many years despite completing the required service for promotion, said sources at GMC.
The five-tier structure comprises Assistant Lecturer, Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor (HOD). The rules prescribe minimum qualifying service for promotion. An Associate Professor with four years of regular service can be considered for promotion to Professor, while an Assistant Professor requires three years of regular service for consideration as Associate Professor. A Lecturer requires two years of regular service for promotion to Assistant Professor.
A GMC doctor said under the system followed outside Goa, an MD-qualified doctor with the required senior residency experience can enter as an Assistant Professor and progress to Associate Professor and Professor in a time-bound manner. Promotions are generally linked to fixed periods of service, with five years for one stage and four years for subsequent stages, the doctor said.
Doctors said the existing GMC system has resulted in prolonged stagnation. One doctor has completed more than a decade as an Associate Professor, although the eligibility period for becoming a Professor is four years. To become an Associate Professor, a doctor requires five years’ experience as an Assistant Professor, five years as a Lecturer, or five years combined as a Lecturer and Assistant Professor, a doctor said. Doctors also said the posts of Assistant Lecturer and Lecturer do not exist in medical colleges elsewhere in India.
The issue is not limited to one department, with doctors claiming several such cases across GMC, including some who have remained in the same designation for more than a decade. According to a source, one doctor remained an Associate Professor for more than two decades and received the order appointing him as HOD only two months before retirement, despite becoming eligible when about one year and eight months of service remained.
Doctors said they often see their juniors serving as professors and HODs when they work as examiners outside Goa. “We are not asking to become Head of Department. Give us the promotion designation. It should be time-bound,” a doctor said.
Doctors said colleges outside Goa, including government and private institutions, generally have Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor designations, with professors serving as HODs, often on rotation. They said the additional stages at GMC delay progression and can also affect academic responsibilities, as doctors may have the required experience but cannot undertake certain responsibilities without the required designation.
The issue has allegedly been raised with the government for at least five years, but proposals remain pending. Doctors also said GMC has no functioning staff society to collectively represent such matters.
Professor of Pathology, former HOD and ex-Dean of Goa University, Dr R G Wiseman Pinto said, “I had been pursuing the three-tier faculty system at GMC since the late 1990s, through the South Society and discussions with successive Ministers, Deans and HODs, but earlier efforts failed. In June 2024, as a member of the National Medical Commission’s expert board, I raised the issue in writing before the chairman and members. It was discussed and approved, and the NMC directed the Dean and Goa government to establish the system.”
“The government issued an order redesignating eligible Lecturers and Assistant Lecturers with MD qualifications as Assistant Professors. However, the Recruitment Rules, academic, establishment and administrative aspects must be amended, cleared by the Health Department and Goa Public Service Commission, and notified and gazetted. Posts should thereafter be advertised as Assistant Professors, not Lecturers,” Dr Pinto said.
“The reform is important for a clear academic hierarchy, career progression and recognition of competence. Those already holding posts can be redesignated subject to the prescribed qualifications; without the required MD qualification, one cannot become an Assistant Professor,” he said.
I succeeded in getting the principle cleared in June 2024, but it must now be taken to its logical conclusion through proper notification and gazette publication. By doing this, GMC will come in line with other medical colleges in India,” he said.
