Medical students ‘failed’ for joining strike

Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique’s oldest and largest training institution, has forced sixth-year medical students to retake modules, as punishment for participating in a doctors’ strike in January.

The university announced on 1 March that medical students who had joined the nine-day strike, which was held in January and organised by the Mozambican Medical Association, were considered to have failed their current courses.

Most affected are more than 130 students who are working as interns at Maputo Central Hospital during the practical part of their training.

Eduardo Mondlane chief spokesperson Arlete Mambo said the students did not at any time raise grievances with the medical faculty, through the Association of University Students or any other body.

“Never before have students taken part in such action. They are not doctors or professionals, but students in their final year,” Mambo told University World News.

Mambo said the students were being punished for insubordination, and lack of discipline and respect for academic authorities, and that the punishment was lenient – the students could have been expelled.

He said 31 student interns did not join the disturbances. The affected students included 58 who were waiting for final evaluation.

Some students have already committed themselves to repeating the training. Five restarted internships last month, and 22 sent letters expressing an interest in restarting this month. There were also 37 students who had failed a previous internship module and now had two modules to repeat, and 11 who had failed two modules and now had to redo three.

Mambo said the school of medicine would probably graduate 60 students in April and the remaining students in November. This year Eduardo Mondlane enrolled a total of 1,100 medical students.

Mozambique has 1,200 doctors in both public and private practice countrywide, with a ratio of one doctor to 22,000 people.

Jorge Arroz, president of Mozambique's Medical Association, told the press that doctors had gone on strike because their salaries had not increased in real terms for 20 years.

Doctors were demanding a basic monthly wage of 90,000 meticals (US$3,000) while the government was said to be offering between 20,000 and 38,000 meticals. The strike ended on 15 January with agreement between the doctors’ union and government that the matter would be resolved in April as part of a general public sector wage settlement.

Some news reports have said that the university’s decision to punish student doctors flies in the face of the agreement between the medical association and the government. In the agreement, the government was to direct all public sector health units not to take administrative measures against doctors and student doctors who did not report for work during the strike.