«This places the future of a student in the hands of a single professor, with the risk of injustice and favoritism. An exam cannot decide a person’s career.” Pierino Di Silverio, secretary of Anaao Assomed, rejects the elimination of the entrance test to Medicine, foreseen by the basic text approved by the Senate Education Committee: «Even if the decree does not provide for the end of the limited number, it still contains serious critical issues ».
With the new rules, enrollment in Medicine (and also in Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine) would become free. After the first semester, exam grades will decide whether a student can continue.
«So the selection problem is only postponed for six months. The basic text does not specify how, but nevertheless says that the evaluation will be done on the basis of the exams. Which means that only the teachers, with their votes, would decide.”
So, in your opinion, the risk of favoritism is just around the corner…
«It’s inevitable, it happens in all universities, before everyone’s eyes. It is no coincidence that in the past we fought and obtained that the competition for access to specializations became national. We have struggled a lot to establish at least a little equity and now we want to put a student’s future in the hands of a single professor. Maybe an outsider, who has studied a lot and has just started to settle in. A totally subjective selection method, which I fear will increase the number of appeals to the TAR.”
And this is not the only critical point.
«This year over 70 thousand took part in the entrance test. So we can assume that, with the new rules, around 70 thousand kids will enroll in the first year. How could our classrooms physically accommodate everyone? It is impossible, unless – which is absurd – distance learning is envisaged. The truth is that the right to “enroll” is confused with the right to study. But it is precisely the right to study that is thus called into question. Because if I make you sign up and make you pay the fees then I have to ensure you get quality training. And how do we ensure it for all these students, with the limited capabilities we have?”.
Whoever doesn’t pass the selection after six months, what will happen to them?
«The number continues to be programmed, so of the initial members only 15 or 18 thousand would move on to the second year. For others, the text ensures that the exams will be validated and therefore will also be valid for enrolling in other faculties. But in fact we will waste the time of tens of thousands of students.”
So would it be better to leave the current system unchanged?
«We don’t discuss that the test is unfair and needs to be changed, but it would have been much more useful to act on the contents. We should identify specific subjects and textbooks on which to prepare, the same for everyone. And then provide free training courses, organized by the ministry.”
A text to be condemned, then?
«Part of this bill requires that there be a preparation campaign starting from high school. It’s a right idea, which we share. What we dispute is that a single exam decides the fate of a student. Among other things, it is a model that, in broad terms, recalls the French one. A system that doesn’t work and which in fact they are abandoning in France.”
