Medical faculties in Madagascar, located across the six provinces, are facing a glaring shortage of teaching staff.
Patrick Aubrycot Belalahy, a 6th-year student at a provincial public university, laments his lack of experience in certain medical procedures. “I have zero practical experience in forensic medicine. I only learned it theoretically. (…) I have never seen a student or intern practice this subject,” he confided yesterday. At another institution, future practitioners regret the gap between theory and field reality. “A general practitioner is supervising our cardiology internship due to the lack of specialists in the city. The level is very far from the lectures given by the titular professor,” an intern testified. Other students highlight further weaknesses: “Some disciplines are taught by assistants rather than associate professors. We clearly feel a lack at that level.”
These structural difficulties stem directly from the shortage of teachers. The field struggles to ensure succession: many trainers, despite being retired, are kept in their posts to support reduced teams. “The path to becoming a medical professor is extremely long, and many go into exile abroad,” explains one teacher.
The country’s six institutions share the same observation. Some subjects are left without instructors, while for others, a single professor must cover all universities in the territory. Some disciplines have only two or three specialists forced to travel constantly from one faculty to another. This is particularly the case in nephrology, neurosurgery, or oncology. “Sometimes assistants are sent to replace titular professors, which harms the quality of learning,” a university staff member laments.
A view not shared by one of his colleagues, for whom the level of instruction remains unchanged: “It is simply an organizational problem, for which teachers pay the price with immense fatigue.”
The arrival of thirty-five new associate professors in human medicine and odontostomatology, intended to strengthen national staff, will not be enough to fill the void.
Captured & Published at: 2026-09-19 05:53:46 (Madagascar Local Time EAT)
Original Source: https://www.lexpress.mg/2026/09/etudes-superieures-des-etudiants-en.html