Private Medical Colleges – the endless debate

The Cabinet of Ministers recently granted approval for the admission of local civilian students to the MBBS degree program at General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) on payment basis starting from this year. The MBBS degree program, which is currently offered by the KDU, is available only for military cadets and foreign students on fee-levying basis. Seven months earlier, the Cabinet disclosed plans to launch three Private Medical Colleges (PMC), indicating its willingness to encourage the private sector participation within the sphere of providing medical education.

Whenever attempts have been made in the past to open up medical education to the private sector, such efforts have been met with unprecedented level of opposition, particularly from student unions affiliated with radical Leftist political parties, and sometimes even resulting in violence as well as deaths of student activists. Opposition to PMCs has been historically led by the political parties such as the JVP, FSP and its associated student movements like the IUSF. They often emphasise education should not be commercialised and opening up higher education to private entities poses a threat to free education. Ironically, nothing in this world is more commercialised than education, especially university education. In the US, higher education is a major sector of the economy – generating around $ 44 billion in export revenue during 2019.

Currently, Sri Lankans who have obtained their medical qualifications from foreign medical schools are required to face the Examination to Register to Practise Medicine (ERPM) – which was previously known as Act 16 Examination – apart from undergoing one-year internship at a hospital attached to the Ministry of Health in order to practice as medical practitioners in the island. 

At present, parents spend considerable amounts of money to send their children to Bangladesh, Nepal, Russia, China, India, and Belarus to study medicine. Some of these graduates return to the country and offer their service to the motherland. A substantial amount of foreign exchange goes out of the country when our students pursue education abroad. In view of this reality, avenues like PMCs must be created for students who are unable to gain admission to medical faculties of the State universities to enable them to pursue medical education within Sri Lanka. 

To address concerns with regard to quality and standards of private medical education, suitable mechanisms can be developed by the Sri Lanka Medical College (SLMC) to assess and monitor the PMCs periodically to ensure adherence to the potential standards established by the SLMC. As the SLMC is the professional body associated with ensuring the standards of medical education, it is imperative that the Government obtains the active engagement of the SLMC in terms of developing a systematic policy to foster and develop PMCs in Sri Lanka. The GMOA too should constructively contribute towards such endeavours without being a stumbling block. Offspring of many GMOA office bearers study in foreign universities; hence, the GMOA does not have a moral right to oppose the establishment of PMCs.

Even a country like Nepal, which lags behind Sri Lanka in economic and social indicators, has setup PMCs to which students in Sri Lanka attend. Therefore, it is worthwhile to explore the idea of having PMCs without compromising on quality and standards. The reluctance on the part of the society to eschew dogmatic thinking patterns has adversely affected the progress of the nation, with the country being stuck in a constant cycle of chaos and crises while countries such as Bangladesh rapidly move forward, aided by timely reforms and forward-thinking attitudes. The time has arrived to abandon the resistance towards reforms and embrace progressive ideas in order to overcome the stagnation the country has been experiencing for a long period of time.