Page 59 - EW July 2022

Special Report

INDIA'S MIGHTY MEDICAL

EDUCATION MESS

According to latest data of the Union education ministry, 23,000
Indian students are reading medicine in China, 18,000 in Ukraine,
16,000 in Russia, and 15,000 in the Philippines. Every year,
thousands of aspiring medicos are driven out of the country because
of a huge demand-supply imbalance in medical education

Summiya Yasmeen

T HE RUSSIAN INVASION OF Ukraine hangs in the balance, a question being debated by academ-

ics, civil society activists and the public is why such a large
on February 24 and continuing
number of Indian students were obliged to study medicine
warfare between the two neighbour
in Ukraine, which most people can’t locate on the world
nations now in its fifth month, has
map. The answer is provided by Shekharappa Gyanagou-
not only devastated Ukraine and
slowed the global economy, it has
also torpedoed the higher education
Haveri district. On March 1, his son Naveen Shekharappa,
a fourth-year medical student at Kharkiv National Medical
of 18,000 Indian students enrolled dar, a retired paper mill employee residing in Karnataka’s
in medical schools across Ukraine. University, was killed in a Russian rocket attack.
As the Russian military rained rockets on Ukrainian cities, According to Gyanagoudar, although his son averaged 97
television and social media platforms beamed photos and percent in his class XII boards, his score in the National Eli-
interviews with Indian students appealing for evacuation gibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) — the sole pan-India test
by the Indian government. By mid-March, these 18,000 introduced in 2014 for admission into the country’s medi-
students were evacuated under Operation Ganga. cal and dental colleges — was 13 less than the qualifying
Escape from the ravages of war provided the students score for admission into Karnataka’s 17 heavily subsidised
only temporary relief as they returned to an uncertain fu- government medical colleges. “For a seat in a private medi-
ture back home. With a ceasefire unlikely in the near future cal college, the total expense is Rs.1 crore over five years,
and no guarantee of return to their universities, 100 days including donation. The same education in Ukraine costs
on, the evacuated students are making frantic appeals to the Rs.7 lakh per year,” Gyanagoudar told reporters.
Union government’s health and education ministries and Naveen Shekharappa was one of tens of thousands of
National Medical Commission (NMC) to allow them to con- aspiring medicos driven out of the country because of In-
tinue their studies in Indian medical colleges, to little avail. dia’s huge demand-supply imbalance in medical education.
Meanwhile even as the fate of the evacuated students According to latest data of the Union education ministry,

58 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2022