A Medical degree is one of the highly sought and respectable degrees in Nepal. The charm of a medical degree can be judged by the sheer number of students that apply for medical programs each year. As the Medical Education Commission has started the Common Entrance Examination (CEE) system for the undergraduate level in health professional education, assessing the same has been much easier. And colleges that offer senior secondary level education across the country compete hard to produce the top-ranking students, which ensures their prestigious standing within the education fraternity.
As per the recently published Medical Education Common Entrance Examination (MECEE) results, St. Xavier’s tops the list of colleges to have produced most of the students in the top 100. Out of the top hundred, twenty-four students completed their senior secondary level from St. Xavier’s. While St. Xavier's has the most scorers, including the second-place finisher, Ashik Jha of Viswo Niketan Secondary School is the highest scorer. Eight students from Kathmandu Model Secondary School (KMC), five students from Prasadi Academy, and four students from Capital College and Research Center (CCRC) are also among the top hundred.
The senior secondary schools from which the top 100 MECEE students graduated are mentioned below:
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24 |
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8 |
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5 |
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4 |
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3 |
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3 |
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3 |
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3 |
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3 |
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3 |
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4 |
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2 |
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2 |
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2 |
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2 |
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2 |
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2 |
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2 |
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2 |
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1 |
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1 |
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1 |
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1 |
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Greenland Secondary School |
1 |
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1 |
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1 |
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1 |
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1 |
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1 |
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1 |
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1 |
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1 |
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1 |
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1 |
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1 |
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1 |
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1 |
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Unknown |
1 |
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1 |
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1 |
The data reflects that the top 100 scorers are from 40 senior secondary schools across the country. Of these 40 schools, half of them are within Kathmandu valley and the other half are spread across the major cities of the country. None of the students from schools in rural areas of the country have been able to secure their ranks in the top 100. The picture this data has painted shows how miserly our rural education system fares. Even within the major cities, of the 40 schools, after Kathmandu valley, Pokhara comes second with 5 schools, followed by Chitwan with 4 schools and Butwal with 3 schools. Of all the schools, only one from the far western part of the country made it to the top 40. This not only shows that our education system is highly centralized to the major cities but also that the cities from the remotest corners do not come close to cities in other regions.
It is no news that the education system of the country as a whole is plagued with many shortcomings but our analysis here shows a clear demarcation between education in urban and rural sectors. With most of the schools catering to the needs of the urban populace, education in the rural sector is highly marginalized. The top scorers in the MECCEE belong to private schools and some to semi-private schools that have remarkably better education quality. Our education policy as a whole is to blame. Even the latest National education policy 2076 BS was not rid of accusations from analysts regarding many of its provisions that are said to be in favor of private educational institutions. The High-Level National Education Commission that was formed to provide an evidence-based review of the policy has even accused the policymakers of ignoring their specific recommendation based on the evidence collected from the research to promote public schools instead of the private school system of the country. It shouldn’t then come as a surprise to us that the data reflects government and policymakers’ negligence of the rural education system.
Another staggering finding has been the gap between male and female students. Of the top 100, 81 students are male whereas only 19 are female. Gender equality has never been one of the strongest suits of the Nepali education sector. Studies reveal that only 16 percent of the undergraduate population is Female. While studies do suggest that almost 80% women population are enrolled in health professions but they are mostly restricted to subjects such as Nursing, Physical therapy, and health administration. With the above data at hand, what can be generalized is that although a large number of women who actually do enroll for undergraduate courses mostly go for Nursing or the other two and very few enroll for other subjects including MBBS. And most importantly very few women seem to make it to the top 100. The gap has been so prominent that in many cases women health professionals lament that even in this day and age, people refer to them as nurses even if they're doctors.
It is regrettable that the idea of female doctors is still too unnatural for people in our society to accept and the widening gender gap among top scorers does not help. The gender stereotypes established by society go both ways. A long tradition of enrolling female students in nursing programs is also a factor responsible for the stereotype. But along with female health professionals being stereotyped as nurses, male nurses in the profession often do not receive warm responses from people as well. Our education system allowed male members of the society to study nursing only after 1986 and even started to reserve 10 seats for males. However, this changed after 4 years as the society as reservation did not help to change people's opinion regarding male nurses. Only later in 2018, the government started reservation for male students to study nursing again and unlike 3 decades before, society has become a little more accepting towards this. In 2020 out of 13,465 registered nurses only 125 are male as per the data obtained from Nepal Nursing Council. Gender stereotypes within the health care profession are quite pervasive. Another important fact to consider here is The casualties go deeper into the social fabric of the country and look to have been rooted within the patriarchal makeup.
