Jim Day
THE number of black students studying to be doctors declined this year, leading government health officials to question the commitment of university medical schools to change. But medical deans reject this and blame the poor-quality education of many would-be medical students.
South Africa is educating enough doctors for its needs, said the Health Department’s Director General, Dr Olive Shisana. But the pattern of emigration – with white graduates more likely to leave than their black classmates – leaves a shortage that must be filled from abroad.
Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma and her lieutenants are therefore demanding greater admission of black medical students next year.
“The universities are not going out of their way to make room for African students,” said Shisana. “They say, `No, we are committed,’ but the numbers say differently. Clearly, there hasn’t been much of a difference.”
In 1996, there were 2 191 blacks among the 7 826 medical students, or 28%. This year there are 2 185, or 28%. The number of coloured medical students is also largely unchanged.
The University of Cape Town medical school’s 228 black students this year is the same as 1996; the University of the Witwatersrand has seen a slight decline; the University of Stellenbosch has had a four-fold increase – from three to 12.
Other universities have seen only slight increases in the number of their black medical students. But numbers at the Medical University of South Africa, the only medical programme training large numbers of black students, dropped this year, leaving a national decrease in the total.
Deans of medical faculties insist they are making progress in attracting students from disadvantaged backgrounds, but that the problems they face are out of the universities’ hands.
The schooling provided to blacks, particularly in maths and science, has not prepared the vast majority to be successful in medical school, they say. Some universities have, in the past year, started programmes to prepare disadvantaged students for the demanding medical curriculum. But lack of funding and resources means only a handful are served.
Some universities have different admission criteria for disadvantaged students, but deans say they cannot alter these criteria anymore.
“We don’t want to accept students who are just going to fail,” said Professor Max Price, dean of the faculty of health sciences at Wits. He added that throughout the 1980s, only 30% of black students admitted at Wits’ medical programme completed it.
Health officials said they understand many disadvantaged students have not received proper preparation. But this must be dealt with through expanded bridging programmes, the provision of tutors and other services to help those students. It is a matter of reallocating resources, said Shisana.