The recent pronouncement by the National Universities Commission, NUC, to increase duration of medical students from six to 11 years, has been received with outcry by stakeholders in the education sector, saying the development was expensive, discouraging and will lead to dearth of medical doctors in Nigeria.
Deputy Director, Distance Learning Institute, DLI, University of Ibadan, Professor Oyesoji Aremu in his opposition said: “The announcement of NUC that medical students would have to spend 11 years for medical education appears too much a year to be spent in medical schools.”
Explaining the negative impact on the students, parents, profession and the nation, Aremu said it would affect the number of candidates that would henceforth seek to study medicine. He said the health sector might witness a dearth of medical personnel in the country which would have serious effects on Nigerians.
According to him, it will take an average of 29 years for an individual to be a medical student, provided he/she enters university at the age of 17.
In support of this is the Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Calabar, UNICAL, Professor Florence Banku-Obi who said: “NUC just made a statement that has not been backed up by any policy. No policy or curriculum to guide them on that.” She said what the NUC could have done was to break the 11 years into two, adding that students should be given the opportunity to graduate in the first phase and continue after their first degree to read medicine.
Using Ghana as a case study, Banku-Obi said: “In Ghana, for you to read medicine, you must have your first degree and get matured. If it is the maturity the NUC is looking at, they should draw a plan of a first degree, which could be terminal to enable them look for job if they want to discontinue. Also, if anyone wants to continue medical studies, he can now continue to read medicine.”
-Emmanuel Ikechukwu
