The Liberia Medical and Dental Council (LMDC) has called on the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) and the Ministry of Education to place a hold on awarding scholarship to medical students for study in China. Speaking at a news conference held in Monrovia on Monday, November 26, 2012, the LMDC through its Chairman, Professor Robert Kpoto, said medical practitioners graduating from Chinese medical schools are below expectation.
According to him, this could be that the selection process of these students for the scholarship program was not done properly. Hear Prof. Kpoto: "Medical practitioners graduating from Chinese medical schools are performing below expectation. They are even incomparable with doctors who are here. I mean, they are failure and something must be done about this."
"I want to think that something might have gone wrong in the selection and vetting processes of these students who have been given scholarship to study medicine in China," said Prof. Kpoto. Prof. Kpoto recommended that the LMDC be part of the entire selection and vetting processes so as to get the proper students for such scholarship.
Speaking further, the LMDC boss also expressed concern of the act of concessionaire companies bringing in their own health practitioners without doing and formal registration with the LMDC. The LMDC, he said, is an institution that was created through an Act of the Legislature to monitor, regulate and promulgate rules and regulations in line with the National Health Policy of Liberia, and as such, it must be respected at all times.
He said the LMDC, which major aim is to ensure that Liberians get quality healthcare, needs to test in order to know the level of qualification of doctors who are brought into the country by many of these concessionaires. "We need to know whether or not these doctors that are brought into the country are qualified. These doctors need to be licensed by the LMDC," he said.
Most besides, he said there is a need that qualified Liberian doctors get employed by these companies. He said the part of the LMDC's foremost responsibility is to ensure that qualified Liberia doctors get employed before and foreign doctors.
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Kpoto's press statement is a complete nonsense and has no merit in it.How can he say that the selection process has problem and at the same time say that the medical graduates from China are performing below standard. He must state his point. Either the graduates from China are not adequately trained or the medical board just want to be part of the selecting process.From his press conference read on line he is saying that Liberians graduating from medical schools in China are not properly trained to practice medicine period, its not who does the selection.Kpoto should know that Liberia medical school is counted amount the least in the world. In fact medical graduates from the school in Liberia are not allowed to practice medicine in most parts, if not, all of the developed world.While China is among the first in the sciences. My question to Kpoto is, is China just awarding fake medical degrees to Liberians?
we are here studying very hard just like the other students in liberia's medical school and we believe the problem is not because the selection of students coming to china was not done properly. let people stop politicizing medicine. This is not about speaking 'Big english' its about life. can those Drs who are now saying all these things tell us that when they went to medical schools, they were not allowed to practice and after graduating they became so perfect? these are things that are killing liberia and its people. Can Dr kopto tell us here that chinese medical schools are not compared to liberia's Ancient and only medical school? He said that foreign companies are bringing in their own doctors, now my question to him is if liberian doctors were so good than any others, while will companies want to pay so much money for a foreign doctor then they might pay for a local one? Can Dr kpoto tell us here how many specialized doctor liberia has of her own? it is time that we all work togeher to find a solution to this whole night mare. we previously and just of recent wrote the GOL explaining and asking them of ways to solve this problem and we even made recommendations. But up to now we are told that GOL does not have money to transport people home to do interns and then do the same for them when they shall have graduated. If he can ask any of those students who just returned, if they were ever allowed to go near a chinese patients then he will get to understand the route cause of their performances. I want to take this time to call on all meanign loving to help add to our voices here in the diaspora; who in the snow and harch wethether conditions we find ourselves under today, to ask government to provide for students, transports to return and do intern and come back to graduate. In our recommendations we also mentioned that students can be allowed to stay and specialized so that they will atleast be allowed by the chinese to practiced. My name is Edwin N. Sumowar, a medical student here in china and presently the secretary General of the Liberian students union in china (LSUIC)and i can be reached by mobil:+8613035088167, skype. iwinic74/sumowar or esumowar@yahoo.com Thank you very much and hope some one will get this message to the right authority.
Fellow comrades and readers, I think Prof. Kpoto and other senior ranging officers sentiments on the media, have some political undertone. Alluding to the fact that there are more qualified and trained young people gradually returning home and excelling to levels at which during their aeon couldn't have happened creating a serious abashment for them. Therefore, they are finding ways to paint and engineer unfavorable impression to the general public about Chinese education. But, fellow comrades as we are aware of the many challenges and future ones to come, we much stand firm to face these conditions, if we will need to leave an inscription of legacy in the minds of the present and unborn generation. The tough and arduous period we are going through here, expose us to many new phenomena, technologies, and broader exposures to a much more synchronous world that we wouldn't have ever thought about in our respective life journey. As such, the new knowledge we are pursuing now couldn't have been acquired in mama Liberia. Now is the time that the aged decision-makers give chance(s) or creates an enabling milieu for the young generation to showcase what they have learnt over the years for the well being of our underdeveloped society. There are many issues (legal, political, social, and psychological) that are lingering in our society that need to be unlocked in order for Liberia educational sector to compete with the outside world. Globally, Chinese universities are strong competitors regarding provision of quality education. The imperative issue about the Professor and others concerning their argument don't have sufficient evidence that can acquittal or even exonerate them from the "political rhetoric" they are engaging the public with. From all indication, we are strongly convinced that there might be some underlining factors that are creating this condition. But, however, learning is also based on you as an individual. Despite of your country of taught, I believe that performance is about the individual and not collective work/judgement in all cases. One preacher man said and I quote, "nothing you've been through will be wasted so long God is the cornerstone or center of your journey." I strongly believed that God brought us here (China) for a specific cause and no noise from back home will distract our focus especially considering our strive for redefining, reforming the status-quo, and constructively pursuing the cause for contemporary and sustainable development.