Durban - The dreams of hundreds of matriculants with ‘A’ aggregate passes to study medicine are dashed by the limited places on offer at universities.
And some say the race- based quota system, which gives enrolment priority to many under-performers, patronises such candidates.
Doctors believe tertiary institutions should be encouraging the previously disadvantaged to raise their academic standards instead of accepting mediocre matric results and offering enrolment over academic high achievers.
Only 1 in 4 matrics will get varisity places
Former Miss India South Africa and Miss India Worldwide, Dr Kajal Lutchminarian, 27, said it baffled her how matriculants with average marks continued to be accepted into medical schools.
Lutchminarian, who studied at the Walter Sisulu University School of Medicine and is specialising in plastic surgery at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, believes lowered enrolment standards may result in students delivering the bare minimum.
“It is human nature to perform at the level expected of you. If more is expected, you will work harder to achieve. Pupils interested in studying medicine should be working harder to raise themselves up to enter this field.”
She said race-based education was “unacceptable”.
“As we are living in a new South Africa, we should all have equal opportunities.”
Lutchminarian, who matriculated at Tongaat Secondary in 2004, said her first year class comprised around 200 students. But that number had reduced considerably as some students – with matric passes and fully paid bursaries – were unable to cope. This, she said, resulted in the shortage of doctors in South Africa and had placed pressure on the country’s health-care system as they struggled to keep pace with increasing patient loads and decreasing human and financial resources.
It also resulted in an influx of foreign doctors from countries including Cuba and Nigeria, she said.
Having attained five distinctions in matric, from six subjects, Lutchminarian applied to various universities to study medicine. Her preferred choice was the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine but she was told she was not considered despite meeting the requirements, due to the quota system.
“I have many relatives and friends who are studying medicine abroad as they are willing to do whatever it takes to study medicine but at great financial burden to their families.”
Lutchminarian was grateful to have been finally accepted at the Walter Sisulu University School of Medicine, where she excelled as top of her class and has initiated many community outreach projects.
She was recently named a Standard Bank Rising Star in the public and private service category. The awards publicly recognise inspirational and passionate individuals with a capacity for achievement.
GP Dr Pubern Padayachee, who graduated at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, said anyone who wanted to be a doctor should be afforded the opportunity. However, he proposed that a pre-med degree or private school for those who had not acquired the required symbols should be implemented.
Padayachee said the admission to medical school was a controversial one and the selection should be as fair as possible given the country’s circumstances. “But I have full faith in any graduate that completes their internship.”
He added that it was vital local doctors be employed above those from countries such as Cuba. “But if Cuba is educating South Africans and admitting them into their medical schools, then it is fair to allow Cubans to practise here.”
A final year medical student at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, who declined to be named, said the government should have considered opening more universities with medical schools years ago to cope with the demand.
"The number of deserving students who apply and meet the criteria far exceed the places available, yet we are constantly told there is a shortage of doctors in the country.”
Like Lutchminarian, she said the quota system was prejudicial to high-achieving students.
“If you go to a doctor, you want him to be the best practising doctor whose achievements were based on merit rather than quotas. Students go to countries like Romania, Mauritius and India to study not because their results are bad, but because there is no space here, and this needs to change.”
The dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits, Martin Veller, said the enrolment criteria used addressed the healthcare needs of the country. “The country has a very clear mal-distribution of healthcare professionals, with poor and rural populations particularly badly affected… We use the school from which such an individual has graduated as a marker for the community that our applicant has come from.
“The reason we try and attract a larger number of individuals from such underserved communities is that the international experience is that a larger number of such individuals will return to serve such communities,” he said. “The allocation of 20% of candidates based on race is to address the relative shortage of such individuals in South Africa’s pool of health professionals – compared to the proportion of black and coloured individuals in the South African population.”
Veller said that looking back, the number of applications for medicine was increasing.
“We had about 7 000 applications for admission in 2015 compared to the more than 9 000 applications for 2016.”
He admitted there was a significant shortage of medical doctors in South Africa.
“My personal view is that we should be trebling the numbers by both increasing the number of students accommodated at established faculties, and increasing the number of universities at which students can study medicine.”
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