The Module System: A Road to Glory ?

By Aneeqa Javed

(1st Year)

Like most of the other pre-med students, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. All I cared about back then was getting into Pakistan’s most prestigious institution ‘king Edward medical university’. Little did I know that I’d be one of the guinea pigs or should I say ‘the lucky batch’ that’d be a part of a new experiment, supposedly a new system that would enable medical students to learn faster and better (better sounds good). This was the ‘integrated module system’.

The first thing we were to study was cells-being the most basic of all. So a ten day ‘Cell Module’ began. To this day, we’ve been taught a lot about cells. Our day begins and ends with these minute bodies. I have gone through so many ‘cellular things’ in the past few days that I cannot recall anything else.

There’s been a lot of objection and people have been pointing fingers at the authority and management of the university for they don’t appreciate the change. My purpose of writing this is to convey the message ‘Please do NOT lose hope over all the negative criticism and the fuss about not being able to understand a thing’. Believe me, it’s pretty hard for me too but I don’t think it’s because of the module system. It’s because after all these years of F.Sc/A levels and Matric/ O levels, we have gotten used to the spoon feeding and the teachers running behind our backs to get us to learn.

All I remember from the lectures is getting into the old auditorium, finding a place to sit, staring blankly at the slides and the alien terminology ringing in my ears, waiting for another two minutes to the lecture to sink in but when it won’t go anywhere near my thick skull, getting out before it gets too late.

Module system is a great step forward and it’s better if we adapt to the change (even better if we appreciate it). Of course it needs improvement as it is a first but then again, it’s better than studying completely different things in all the three subjects. I mean, think about it; studying upper limb in anatomy, muscles in physiology and the Krebs cycle in biochemistry can be turmoil.

And about the molecular biology I’d say it’s a good approach and it will actually help us in the coming years. But I still hope it’s not included in the prof. It’s already like a bed of nails in the assessment.

I’ve also heard people saying, ‘AKU k standard ki parhae nae hosakti.’ KEMU is no less than any other medical university. And if its people are trying to introduce a new method of teaching for our benefit, we should definitely coordinate. It may take some time but eventually, we will get used to it and things will start getting better. The solution is by no means blaming our own institution. Why not help it out? There’s a possibility this module system turns out to be a great success and we could then proudly say ‘Yeah, we were the lucky batch’.