Minister of employment and labour relations, Mr Haruna Iddrisu has urged the Ghana Education Service, the ministry of education and other stakeholders in education to have a second look at the requirements for the study of medicine in Ghana.
According to the Mr. Iddrisu, who is also the Tamale South Member of Parliament, the study of medicine has to be demystified because there are many students in the country, particularly in the northern region whose results have not been considered good enough to study medicine but given the opportunity could have performed better and even come back to serve their communities as doctors.
He charged the Ghana Education Service to work towards overhauling the system to give students who have proven to be better in the study of medicinea and other science related courses a chance to pursue their dreams.
The current requirements for students who want to pursue medicine is that senior high school students must have at least aggregate six or 7. But the labour minister such cut-off point does the country a great disservice.
The minister who was addressing stakeholders in education at day’s inclusive education forum in Tamale argued that it is not true that the current system cannot identify smart students in towns such as Tolon who have the potential to be medical doctors to serve their own people.
Ghana, Mr Haruna said, should begin exploring opportunities that will enable potential future medical doctors to augment the few doctors in the country.
“In promoting inclusive education, we should be mindful of the country’s manpower needs and requirements to ensure Ghana is not left out in the world when specialized training is mentioned.”