The success rate of students in the first year of medical faculties ranges between 75 per cent and 90 per cent
Parliament’s Ethics Committee has raised concerns regarding the results of a number of students at some Upper Egypt faculties of medicine. The committee has requested an immediate investigation into why more than 70 per cent of the freshman class of medical students at a number of faculties in Assiut, Luxor, and South Valley failed.
The percentage of freshman medical students in Assiut University who failed was around 60 per cent; 720 students out of 1,207 failed. Around 70 per cent of medical students in South Valley University failed their exams this year, while in the Faculty of Dentistry in the same university, in the Qena branch, only 52 students out of 249 passed, a fail rate of 80 per cent. In Luxor University, only 61 per cent of first year students passed.
MP Samira Al-Gazzar noted that the unprecedented grades mirror the crisis in the country’s overall educational system. Al-Gazzar called for an immediate investigation into the incident by forming a committee comprising veteran professors of medicine in Cairo University which would require all students — those who passed and failed — to take the exam again.
Ministry of Higher Education Spokesman Adel Abdel-Ghaffar said the success rate of students in the first year of medical faculties usually ranges between 75 per cent and 90 per cent. “The percentage increases as they progress from one year to the other. There are 25 faculties of medicine across the country; nine are in Upper Egypt governorates,” Abdel-Ghaffar said.
Vice Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in Assiut University for education and student affairs Amany Omar noted that the failing percentage was the first in the faculty’s history since its creation in 1960. “Half the failing students were expatriates, mainly Sudanese. Only 11 Sudanese students out of 350 passed. Those who failed were not attending lectures regularly,” Omar said.
Some Egyptian students who failed the first year exams, according to Omar, hail from secondary schools which had mass cheating incidents in Thanaweya Amma (grade 12 high school) exams last year. “When the students’ files were screened we noticed they belonged to specific schools where last year’s mass cheating took place,” Omar said.
President of South Valley University Youssef Al-Gharabawi said in a TV interview that one of the basic requirements to succeed in the Faculty of Medicine is for students to have a good command of English, however, he said exams in medicine have proven that in some cases they lack basic knowledge of the language.
“Their answers on the exam papers are incomprehensible,” Al-Gharabawi said, adding that the problem lay in a “faulty” academic educational system, as the success rate of previous years used to hover at around 90 per cent.
Luxor University President Hamdi Hussein cited the new evaluation system in faculties and teaching methods as additional problems. “The evaluation system now has become more rigorous and merciless. Sympathising with medical or engineering students means major problems in the future with patients and facilities,” Hussein said.
The university, according to Hussein, has adopted a continuous evaluation system this year which includes students sitting for exams after they finish each unit of the curriculum. Also, there has been a change in the exam format in that 75 per cent of the grade comes from multiple choice questions (MCQ) and the rest essay questions.
“The MCQ style teaches students to choose the most accurate answer among several correct choices, thus enabling them to be more attentive. Also, it trains them on comprehending what they are studying, not only rote memorising,” explained Hussein.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 27 July, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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