Corruption In Egypt’s Medical Schools — Part 1

I’ve been learning at one of the big public universities in Egypt for like 3 years now (medical school), and sadly, all what I’ve been seeing is corruption. Let’s put these in points to be clear — “10″ is enough for now:

1. The number of students in a year (i.e course or grade) is not less than 800! Need I say more?! How would such a huge quantity leave any chance for serious or useful learning? All of these are to attend lectures in one or 2 lecture rooms! Imagine how communication would be between the lecturer and the students, esp. those at the rear.
2. Per grade, there are 12 practical sections (labs). i.e. The 800 students (for instance) will be divided upon 12 sections making around 66 students per section! Still a very big number, especially for a pure practical education like medical one.
3. In the ‘practical’ sections, everything is being taken except practical stuff! Yes. They give you academical stuff that anyone could get from a book, or from attending the lectures. So why would students attend them? They are obligated to do so. Why? cause your name is written down every section you attend, and if you had many absences at the end of the year, you’d fail!
4. More than half of the students go to those known as private tutors for a relatively pricy costs. Poor students cannot go to those, for sure. And guess what.. who are those private tutors? They are the very academic doctors at the school!!
5. The labs are very much lacking equipments and essentials. Sometimes you can’t find a spare microscope for yourself. One of the rooms I used to attend at in my first year had no working ceiling lamps.
6. We have to buy books written by the education staff in school in order to not be put in their BlackList. Once you buy the books, you write down your signature (or name). This means you’re saved. What if you don’t need those book? What if they suck and you just don’t want them? What if you are poor and can’t afford their price?! There many alternatives that are much better than such books (which are copied from international sources, by the way).
7. The practical books are being shared by students for copying/pasting purposes if you know what I mean. You get a friend’s book, and just copy what’s in it in yours. This is how practical education goes here.
8. The Anatomy and Pathology museums simply suck. The specimens are like 50 years old. You just can’t see anything. I remember one day I was there looking for the “Heart”. After long searching, a friend of mine directed me to a brown glob. When I asked him what it is, he simply said “It’s the heart!”.
9. There is nothing as MCQ sort of exams in our school (and all universities). After more than 50 years of international usage of that type, they’re still reluctant as to use it or not. Heck! They still use the ‘write-what-you-know-in-not-less-than-3-pages’ strategy.
10. In the library, you can’t just walk around freely between books and check what you want to read easily. There are guys standing by the book shelves. You have to know the title of the book you want. You can’t browse it before taking it. Once the guy get a book out of the shelf, it’s the one you are to borrow. No compromises. Of course you have to sign a borrowing policy,…etc too….

Thanks for reading!
You May Also Read Part 2