Minister of Public Service Jennifer Westford says 69 medical students who have finished their fifth year of training have returned from Cuba to complete their final year of studies here at seven faculties across the country.
Westford made this announcement at the last sitting of the National Assembly, in response to APNU Member of Parliament Dr George Norton’s query about whether the ministry planned to bring home any of the medical students this year for vacation or otherwise. He also asked when the ministry planned to bring home the students, and if not, why not, according to a Government Information Agency (GINA) report. Norton also sought to find out from the subject minister the criteria used for the selection of the students who will be returning home this week.
In response, Westford said, “The medical students who are going to be brought home are those persons who would have finished their fifth year and will be doing their final year in Guyana. The government doesn’t bring home any other medical students.”
She told the National Assembly that the criteria devised is based on an agreement between the governments of Cuba and Guyana, where the Cuban government selected the 69 students based on their “academic performance and their geographic locations.” The minister explained that geographic locations form part of the consideration as Guyana has seven faculties that are manned by Cuban specialists. “We have seven faculties in Guyana, where they will be doing their final year and those faculties are located in Regions Two, Three, Four, Five and Six,” Westford said.
The minister explained that the 69 doctors were selected by the Cuban authorities and their names had been sent to the Guyana Government for acceptance and verification of the geographic locations. The list was returned to Cuba and the students arrived in Guyana on August 14. Westford said government is charged with chartering flights to bring the students home and could not obtain one before August 14. The students started their final year studies on Monday.
On Monday, the minister told Stabroek News that the remaining 241 students in Cuba will complete their studies there. “They have their final year exam next year and they will all be returning here to do their internship,” she said. The Cuban Scholarship Programme started in 2002, when the Cuban Government offered Guyana 350 scholarships. It was extended in 2006, when then President Bharrat Jagdeo and Cuba’s President Castro signed the agreement for a further 965 scholarships from 2006 to 2010.
