Med school race quotas questioned

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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 underperformers, 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.

Tips on the right tertiary choice

She said race-based education was
unacceptable.
As we are living in a new South Africa, we
should all have equal opportunities.
Why SA universities are in a class struggle
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
countrys 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 countrys 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.
Straight-A student takes on UKZN
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 Africas 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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