The Chairman of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), Prof. Abba Hassan, has said medical and dental graduates trained in the country perform better than those trained abroad in examinations.
He said foreign-trained doctors’ performance is not at par with the standard of medical education in the country.
The MDCN chairman noted that in last June assessment examination, out of 647 medical and dental graduates that appeared for it, only 178 candidates were successful.
Analysing the success rate, he said 172 medical graduates (26.5 per cent) and six (0.93 per cent) dental graduates passed, representing an overall percentage pass rate of 27.5 per cent.
According to him, this means 469 medical and dental graduates failed the assessment examination, representing a 72 per cent failure rate.
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Hassan said the regional experience about the African students overseas, particularly in the Eastern Bloc, has shown great deficiency in their training.
The MDCN chairman said while MDCN recorded 27.5 per cent pass in the June 2022 assessment examination, Ghana recorded 20 per cent and South Africa recorded 27 per cent in similar examinations.
He re-emphasised the need for those sponsoring candidates abroad to seek guidance from the MDCN and the National Universities Commission (NUC) on which medical school abroad have satisfactory standard.
Speaking during the induction ceremony of foreign-trained medical and dental graduates in Abuja, Hassan said: “This trend has again brought to mind the need for many of our wards attending medical and dental schools in the Eastern bloc and some other countries where experiences have shown poor or substandard medical education, to attend a remediation programme to bring their knowledge at par with the standard of medical education available anywhere in Nigeria.”