Medical grads quit as doctors due to poor English proficiency, says report

The Malaysian Insider – Mon, Nov 9, 2015

Some 1,000 medical graduates have stopped becoming doctors, with their poor command of English being a main factor, The Star reported.

Quoting the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) Malacca chapter president Dr M. Nachiappan, the daily said medical graduates were also unable to cope with other job pressures.

“Despite having completed their housemanship last year, they are no longer keen to be doctors.

“The main reason was poor grasp of English. This is not good for the medical fraternity and does not augur well for the nation if stakeholders do not execute some plans to improve the standard of English,” he was quoted as saying.

Other factors include lack of interest in basic medical training, poor communication skills with patients and frustration over working conditions.

Expressing worry, Dr Nachiappan said lack of English proficiency will handicap Malaysian medical students from keeping up with their counterparts from other countries.

“There must be an urgency to improve the grasp of the language at the primary level. Otherwise, the quality of doctors will go downhill,” the Malacca Manipal Medical College deputy dean told The Star.

Medical schools were also having difficulty producing medical graduates due to poor command of English, he said.

“The quality of our students is compromised due to their inabilities to communicate in English,” the report quoted him as saying, adding that most reference books on medicine as well as lectures were delivered in English.

The Malaysian Insider had reported in June last year that employers were becoming increasingly dismayed by Malaysia's "generation Y" job seekers, due to their poor command of the English language and communication skills.

A survey by the Malaysian Employers Federation a few years ago found that 60% of them identified low English proficiency as the main problem with young recruits.

A similar survey conducted in September 2013 by online recruitment agency JobStreet.com found that 55% of participating senior managers and companies said poor command of the English language was the main reason for unemployment among undergraduates.

School leavers might have SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia) English grades of A and B, but could not even hold a conversation in English, MEF executive director Datuk Shamsudin Bardan had told The Malaysian Insider. – November 9, 2015.

Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/medical-grads-quit-doctors-due-011144480.html