Why they left for Ukraine

Caption An Indian Air force IAF aircraft brings back a batch of 200 stranded Indian students from Ukraine to New Delhi The Indian government started Operation Ganga a rescue operation to evacuate Indian nationals mostly students from conflicttorn Ukraine in the midst of a war with Russia through neighbouring countriesWe sent her to Ukraine for two reasonsmdashit cost us less and the NEET score didnrsquot matterrdquo says Ashok Patel His daughter Pooja 19 is a student at Bukovinian State Medical University in Chernivtsi Ukraine Pooja is among the lucky few who have managed to return to India in the last few days after Russia declared war against Ukraine 10 days agoIndian students in Ukraine have been trickling back into the country on evacuation flights since last week Some are still fighting their way through Ukrainian borders to neighbouring Poland and HungaryDr Amit Gawande came back from Russia in 2009 and is working as a pulmonologist at Sujay Hospital PicSameer MarkandePatel who works at a cooperative bank in Surat says he could afford to pay R30 lakh to fund his daughterrsquos education a sum that would cover her for six years ldquoThis included everything from tuition fee to stay flights and foodrdquo he saysPooja who wants to be a cardiac surgeon had got a National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test NEET rank of 260 According to data shared by the health ministry in the Lok Sabha in December 2021 there are 88120 Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery MBBS seats and 27498 Bachelors of Dental Surgery BDS seats available in India In comparison 16 lakh students had registered for NEET last year to secure admission to undergraduate medical and dental programmes across the country In 2020 the figure stood at 13 lakhPooja Patel Professor HL Dhusia and Dr Santosh KadamBecause of her score Pooja didnrsquot manage to secure admission at a government college in India Dr Nirbhay Chandarana an MD physician who studied in Ukraine from 2011 to 2017 made her medical dreams possible Dr Chandarana now runs The MD House in Ahmedabad which helps students get into the Bukovinian State Medical University ldquoThe problem is that India has less seats and more students In Ukraine I was a gold medalist in my collegerdquo he says He adds that since there werenrsquot any official representatives to facilitate admissions for medical students to Ukrainian universities he decided to take on the taskAccording to the Education and Science Ministry of Ukraine there were 18095 Indians studying in Ukrainian universities in 2020 accounting for roughly 24 per cent of the foreign students in that country Those who acquire a medical degree from outside India need to pass the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination FMGE to practice as doctors in this countryUnion Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi last week said that ldquoabout 90 per cent of Indians who study medicine abroad fail to clear qualifying exams in Indiardquo but also added that it was not the ldquoright time to debate why students are moving out to study medicinerdquoDr Amit Gawande a Mumbaibased pulmonologist at Sujay Hospital who studied in Russia and returned in 2009 says that the only reason students are leaving the country is because there are too many aspirants and too few seats ldquoItrsquos not just Ukraine itrsquos why students go anywhere else in the world including Russia and China I got a good rank but I was getting admission only in far flung places like Wardha and Solapur and I didnrsquot want to leave the cityrdquoGawande adds that the FMGE exam which is necessary to practise in India is tough and can deter students from going abroad ldquoMany have had to take the exam six to seven times before they get through Several of them have also given uprdquo Sumaiya Sayed who was a resident of Nagpada secured admiration in a Russian university to study medicine because she wanted to be a surgeon ldquoIn my hostel two whole floors were occupied by Indiansrdquo she says Her initial plan was to go to Australia but that would have cost her 20000 Australian dollars around R11 lakh compared to R10 lakh for six years in Russia Today Sayed is a practising gynaecologist in SydneyItrsquos the cost of education then which emerges as the second most pressing reason why middle class students are choosing Eastern European countries Pallavi Patil Deharkar head of operations at SREC Overseas Education Consultants in Bandra says that children who have a rank of more than 300 in NEET donrsquot manage to get admission in government colleges which are cheaper They then approach private colleges which in India charge anything upwards of R35 lakh and donations could run into crores ldquoItrsquos impossible for a middle or lower middle class student to dream of pursuing medicinerdquoDeharkar says that since these universities also teach English Indians especially those who come from smaller towns and who are not proficient with the language are more than happy to shift SREC is 26 years old and Deharkar says that the trend of students moving to medical universities abroad picked up in 2013 when the common entrance exam NEET was introducedHL Dhusia who is professor emeritus at Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College Sion feels that NEET is also complicated ldquoWe should go back to the old system where each college had its own test and merit listrdquoDr Santosh Kadam is part of the Indian Medical Association and runs Lifeline Hospital in Thane He says that students who leave India know that no matter how low their NEET score theyrsquoll still have a fighting chance to pursue medicine ldquoIn India especially in the rural and nonmetro areas one is considered successful if they become a doctor or engineer There is a lot of parental pressure on young students toordquo While there is an urgent need to expand the medical college infrastructure in Indiamdashboth public and privatemdashneed to meet the growing demand for medical career aspirants and in turn bolster quality healthcare to service a population of 12 billion Even if there are colleges they lack skilled teaching staff Poor salaries means that the lowest talent makes it to the faculty of medical colleges Worse they are selected basis their degrees and not clinical experience Dr Kadam adds ldquoIn Maharashtra there is supposed to be a government medical college in every districtmdashAlibaug will have one soonmdashbut authorities find it hard to fulfill this criteria Itrsquos natural that students will want to leave the countryrdquo