Parents lament as foreign-trained doctors failure Nigerian assessment exams

By ZUBAIRU IDRIS

The Coalition of Parents of Foreign-trained Medical Doctors has decried the mass failure of their children in assessment examination conducted by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN).

Chairman of the coalition, Prof. Lukman Diso, disclosed this during a press conference on Wednesday in Kano and urged government to investigate the cause.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 800 candidates sat for the assessment examination and 400 candidates were said to have failed the examination.

The assessment examination is mandatory for all foreign trained medical doctors wishing to obtain certification to practice in Nigeria.

The examination is aimed at ensuring that the standard of training obtained abroad by candidates measured up to the standard of training in Nigeria.

Diso said that the registration of Medical and Dental Practitioners Act, CAP M8, 2006, Section 8,11,12 and 14, is mandatory as stated clearly in its guidelines called “Red Book”.

“Nigerian graduates of accredited foreign medical schools are entitled to provisional registration upon their return to the country to enable them undertake their internship.

However, “Nigerian graduates of unaccredited foreign medical schools, as well as, all expatriate medical doctors from foreign medical schools who do not possess recognised professional postgraduate qualifications, are required to sit and pass council’s assessment examination before they can be registered,” he said.

According to Diso, no fewer than 800 foreign trained medical doctors sat for the assessment examination in 2021, that was conducted in Sokoto.

“However, about 400 candidates were said to have failed the examination. Most of the candidates were sponsored by various state governments.

“It is clearly stated in the Red Book that, internship must be undertaken and completed within 24 months from the date of graduation.

“Evidently, many candidates that have even passed previous assessment examinations are still waiting for internship posting.”

He lamented that the delay may cost many of the students to loss license to practice.

Diso said that the MDCN mandated all foreign-trained medical doctors to take the examination twice a year, and each doctor has to pay N135,000 as registration fee.

He said further that before the assessment examination, all the doctors were mandated to register for attachment with hospitals for four months and pay a fee ranging between N150,000 and N200,000.

He, however, urged the MDCN, as a regulatory body, to compile list of accredited medical schools across the globe for Nigerians to know the right schools to attend.

However, Dr Tajudeen Sanusi, Registrar, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), said he sympathised with the students and the parents over the issue of failure.

He said that set standards of the medical profession has to be maintained in spite of outcries in order to have world standard health services.

According to him, the profession deals with human lives and the standards set for becoming a medical practitioner must be sustained.

“The problem is that some of the schools these students attended are not even accredited in those countries, some of them only started teaching in English recently and so when they come here and we conduct examinations for them it turns out like this.

“As for publishing the names of accredited medical schools, there are so many medical schools all over the world so it is not our duty to begin to search for the authentic medical schools.

“It is left for the students and parents to ensure that the schools they send their wards to or attend meet world medical standards.” (NAN)