![[Editorial] Cease-gap measure](https://i0.wp.com/images.koreaherald.com/koreaherald/version03/www/images/share.jpg?w=860&resize=860,0&ssl=1 "[Editorial] Cease-gap measure")
The Ministry of Training has unveiled an emergency plan to “normalize” medical college operations to take care of the inevitable hole in training for medical college students who’ve refused to attend lessons in protest in opposition to the federal government’s medical reform initiatives, together with the rise in medical college enrollment quotas.
The ministry mentioned Sunday it’ll briefly permit medical college students to take a go away of absence given that they return to highschool for the spring semester subsequent yr. This can be a stop-gap measure to forestall prolonged disruptions of medical college training attributable to the mass walkout.
Whereas the non permanent coverage was deemed unavoidable, the ministry sparked a contemporary spherical of disputes by saying Sunday that it will additionally contemplate lowering the medical college curriculum from the present six years to 5 to handle the scarcity of latest medical professionals.
The proposal to shorten the curriculum prompted the medical neighborhood to specific robust opposition, saying that the measure would undermine the standard of medical training.
It’s regrettable that the federal government has created one other hot-button concern at a time when it must resolve the protracted confrontation with the medical neighborhood over the enrollment quota and associated medical reform coverage initiatives.
South Korea’s medical care companies have been hit by delays and cancellations of surgical procedures since February when junior docs left hospitals over the federal government’s plan to spice up the variety of medical college college students to organize for a scarcity of medical professionals in Korea’s quickly getting older society.
The issues plaguing medical care companies are critical sufficient, particularly for docs saddled with heavier workloads because of the walkout by junior docs and for sufferers ready longer to get surgical procedures and therapy.
However lowering the medical training curriculum from six years to 5 is one other matter. Internationally, college students are required to spend a minimum of six years — or as much as eight years — at medical faculties to be taught the fundamentals and purchase important abilities to change into medical professionals.
Some specialists say that even the six-year training curriculum for docs shouldn’t be lengthy sufficient in consideration of the large quantity of medical information and abilities college students should be taught.
Significantly problematic is that shortening the curriculum interval may lead to a decrease high quality of medical college training — a risk that may overlap with the core argument of the medical neighborhood in protesting the federal government’s enrollment quotas.
Docs and medical college students have opposed the federal government’s plan to extend medical college quotas, claiming that accepting extra college students would damage the standard of training in view of the present medical college infrastructure and the restricted variety of professors.
Because the dispute expanded, the Training Ministry mentioned in a briefing Monday that universities run an early commencement program for college kids who’ve accomplished the required credit, which might scale back the research interval by as much as a yr. The ministry mentioned that its plan is to not pressure all universities to undertake the five-year program however to assist faculties that select to undertake such a mannequin.
In a parliamentary audit on Monday, Well being and Welfare Minister Cho Kyoo-hong mentioned there was no prior dialogue with the Training Ministry over the shortening of the medical college curriculum, however he doesn’t oppose the plan so long as the standard of training is assured.
Whereas the federal government itself has added extra confusion to the dispute over its medical reform initiatives, the nation’s medical faculties proceed to battle with the mass absence of scholars. For all of the pleas and coverage incentives, a mere 3.4 p.c of medical college college students have registered for the autumn semester, and solely 2.8 p.c of scholars returned to lessons.
Given {that a} shorter curriculum is unlikely to make sure the standard of training, the federal government and the medical neighborhood should collectively search different methods to resolve the continuing medical service and training debacles.
