The tug of war for SAITM
With so many parties involved it has become a very complex issue
SAITM has been a major issue this year with never ending debates and medical students boycotting their lectures it has been tough going.
Today UCG in a news advertisement asked state medical students to attend lectures as they will gazette the minimum advanced level requirement to become a doctor in the country.
The government has appointed a new SLMC chairman after PROF Carlo Fonseka retires as its president, Prof Carlo Fonseka was known to have a PRO SAITM stance during the previous government has been heavily anti SAITM during the current regime, and the newly appointed SLMC chairman is also known to be pro SAITM according to talk among the medical student community.
How will the new SLMC chairman act?
According to some sources government is discussing to make SAITM part of SLIIT to give SAITM more credibility and to ease the tension among students and the government but the rumors died down after several days.
The issue regarding SAITM is so complex because it involves rules and regulations among several different ministries and departments, for example the health ministry is in control regarding the standards of doctors and the education and higher education ministry is in control when it comes to the standards and requirements of medical students.
Not only that the problem gets even more complex when other parties with their own agendas get involved such as the GMOA, student unions and also the health minister and his son which holds prominent positions within the SAITM administration. There are lot of conflicts of interests when it comes to the SAITM tug of war.
A well functioning healthcare system is an essential part of a country and health education is one of them and both seems to be clearly broken at the moment as if everything has come to a stalemate with neither side getting an upper hand.
At the moment all we can do it wait and see.
