The Farce

A farce: an absurd event. The great honourable National University of Singapore has accepted 2 students from polytechnic into the ranks of their Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Yes indeed, I say this in utter jest and disgust.

Background information: Polytechnic students in Singapore are taught the practical approach to technical sciences, e.g. biotechnology. Generally, a poorer grade in the GCE O Level exams is required for polytechnic entry as compared to the competitive entry into Junior College (JC). The JC route is the much preferred route of enterprising students wanting to do a professional degree in university, i.e. medicine. For many years, this has been the case and never has a polytechnic graduate entered NUS Medical School.

Precedence was set some years back when a female polytechnic student was offered a scholarship to read medicine in the University of Leicester, UK. Both my folks, doctors, frowned upon this, as did I. Entry into medicine was now available to the technical students? *ponders…*

This year, the uproar grew. NUS accepted 2 polytechnic graduates into the ranks of medical students – acclaiming their academic results as well as their hospital attachments and other co-curricular activites. Having a hospital attachment before entering medical school is indeed a plus point, but the nature of this hospital attachment would also be worth looking at. E.g. ‘Hey I was attached to a hospital to clean the toilets, wipe the windows etc.’

I believe the role of the hospital attachment is for the prospective students to experience the working life of a doctor and to be immersed in the medical subculture – firing himself a warning shot before blindly succumbing himself to the endless world of study and clinicals.

Now people from the various polytechnics believe that they have a fighting chance at entering medical school. Fact is, only 2 out of 250 students that are due to be enrolled in the prestigious course at NUS will be polytechnic students. False hope has arisen within the hordes of polytechnic students that one day, they will be scalpel-yielding surgeons ala Grey’s Anatomy, or limping geniuses like House M.D.

This uproar is exacerbated amongst the applicants this year because it is the ‘dragon year babies’ that are due to enrol in university. The dragon year (1988) sees the most births due to some archaeic superstition perhaps. Already thousands of more qualified junior college students have been turned down. To rub salt in their wounds, that they would never learn how to stitch or clean, their ‘lesser rivals’ have been handed seats in the previously exclusive course.

I do not know what NUS is trying to prove from this step to ‘further mediocrity’. They already are the most backdated school in terms of teaching, they still use the traditional ‘anatomy’, ‘physiology’ etc subjects in preclinical years instead of a patient-centered or problem based learning concept that even Harvard has adopted. Moving away from cadaveric dissections and into the 21st century technology of ‘virtual anatomy’, NUS has been the target of many criticisms of late. This latest fiasco plainly puts the nail in the coffin for NUS.

As the world aims to put ‘general education’ as an undergraduate focus, NUS seems to have special interest for those who have done purely ‘biology related courses’. The U.S. encourages arts or social sciences course in college before applying for Medicine, the A level curriculum from Cambridge no longer allows TRIPLE sciences and math to be taken as the 4 subjects, but instead at least ONE cross-faculty subject must be offered – NUS medicine wants biotechnology as YOUR qualification.

It may seem a extremely elitist, then again, isn’t that the medical profession for you? The Singapore Management University’s upcoming Law Faculty will be enrolling polytechinic ‘paralegal studies’ graduates into the illustrious law profession soon. I believe this will lead to as large an uproar from the wretched lawyers as much as the elitist doctors have lashed out at the horseplay looming at NUS.

I have few words to express my disgust for this bold and unorthodox step – expletives aside. I hope the stand taken by NUS will be adjusted next year to rectify the clearly erroneous decision.

Fat hope and a slim chance laddies….

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