proposed increase in the years of study for medical students in nigeria

Stakeholders in education sector have reacted to plans by  the National Universities Commission, NUC, to increase duration of medical students from six to 11 years, saying the development was expensive, discouraging and will lead to dearth of medical doctors in Nigeria.

Reacting to this, Deputy Director, Distance Learning Institute, DLI, University of Ibadan, Professor Oyesoji Aremu, 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.
Also reacting, Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Calabar, UNICAL, Professor Florence Banku-Obi, 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.”


LOSS OF JOBS BY 2 MILLION YOUTHS IN KANO NIGERIA LOOMING

– About two million youths may lose their jobs due to the closure of some sachet water producing factories in Kano
– Many producers were compelled to shut down due to the increase in price of polythene used for packaging the commodity
– The situation compelled the Association of Sachet Water Producers of Nigeria to increase the price of ‘pure water’

The situation has forced the closure of about 60% of the `pure water’ producing factories in Kano state.

About two million youths may lose their jobs due to the closure of some sachet water producing
factories in Kano state.

RESCUED GIRLS

– Police rescued three teenage girls who were abducted and converted to Islam in Bauchi
– The police commissioner in Bauchi, Baba Tijjani said the girl volunteered to converted to Islam on their own
– They have been released to their parents
– Their families could not contain their joy over the release of their daughters
Three teenage girls, who were abducted in Bauchi state and forcefully converted to Islam, have been rescued by the police. They were handed over on Tuesday, March 16, by the Shari’ah commission in the state to Tunde Ogunsakin, the assistant inspector-general of police, Zone 12, Bauchi, The Punch reports. The three girls were identified as Blessing Gopep, 13, Linda Christopher, 16 and Progress Jacob, 13.