In 2016, 46 graduates were chosen by the Free State Department of Education to study medicine at the Astrakhan State Medical University in Russia. The graduates now claim that the government has abandoned them.
They returned home in early August and despite the government's promise to pay for their health professionals Council of South Africa board exam fees nothing has happened.
Medical Graduates
One of the graduates from Free State, Katlego Ditsoane says that he was excited upon being informed that he was awarded the opportunity to study medicine abroad since it is a well-sought-after profession in the country.
However, joining the list of the country’s unemployed is something that they did expect.
Back in 2016 when we had this news we were obviously excited and then we went to sign our contracts and then went to study abroad. From the first day, there were 46 of us apart from the 38 graduates from Mpumalanga but we are from the Free State, but all in all, together we are 84 sitting at home unemployed
Ditsoane adds that this is all despite the Higher Education department’s promise that they would be integrated and hired like medical students who studied in Cuba.
However, after returning, the graduates were told that they would instead have to sit for a board exam that is overseen by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA)
“The process is a very tedious one and an expensive one at that. So the problem was that the government was reluctant to pay for us, so we had to use our funds to pay for the SAMRC board exam.”
He further points out that most students are still stuck in that process which is crucial to get registered, as Health Profession's statutory body requires them to pass that process. This is consequently why most of them are still at home and don't know when they will take the board exam.
A cohort of thirty-eight Mpumalanga graduates from the same programme is also faced with the same challenge and says that the government has not done much to resolve it. The three graduates have been at home in Mpumalanga for about four months without employment.
