In Pakistan becoming a doctor has become a hard nut to crack
ISLAMABAD: In Pakistan becoming a doctor has become a hard nut to crack. There are very few government medical colleges and they are competitive because they are affordable for everyone. However, their merit level is so high that only those scoring between 88 per cent and 98 per cent aggregate are enrolled there. The rest have to look to private colleges, which are not affordable for all. Their fee structure is almost Rs1,000,000 per year and this is too much for the middle class.
I question why education has been limited to the upper class. Why is a talented but middle class student not able to study medicine and pursue his or her career goals? Every year, more than 40,000 students appear in the Medical College Admissions Test with the hopes that they might get into medical college. Unfortunately, hardly 3,500 are enrolled. It’s heart-wrenching that all of one’s effort and hard work for 12 years goes down the drain on the basis of one single entrance test.
Education is a necessity so it should be made possible for everyone, whether poor or rich. Either the number of government colleges should be increased or the fee structures of private medical colleges lowered so that more students can learn what they want. At least in the educational field, the discrimination of social status should be eliminated.
Aimen Arshad
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2016.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
