Kyrgyzstan is experiencing an acute shortage of medical personnel and an alarming trend of declining quality of training, especially in private higher education institutions. The Head of the Department for Control over Execution of Decisions of the President and the Cabinet of Ministers, Azamat Osmonov, said.
«The analysis revealed a critical situation: there is a shortage of more than 5,000 medical workers in the country, while the number of doctors over 50 years old, many of whom are of retirement age, is more than 3,200. About 2,000 doctors graduate from universities annually, but only a quarter of them go to work in state clinics, which exacerbates the shortage,» he noted.
The head of the department emphasized that the key factor for a medical worker is experience, which can only be fully obtained in state institutions. Employment of young specialists in private clinics, where full-fledged practice is difficult, creates a risk to the health of patients.
«The tragic example of the death of a child in 2023 due to the inexperience of a dentist serves as a clear confirmation of this problem,» Azamat Osmonov noted.
To solve the problem, ministries need to conduct a detailed analysis of the labor market and create mechanisms linking education and the labor market, including mandatory agreements between employers and higher education institutions.
Azamat Osmonov also focused on the problems of export of education and licensing of medical universities.
«The administration of the head of state has detected serious violations and shortcomings in this area. Licensing is often formal in nature, quality requirements are ignored. At the same time, the lack of material and technical resources and qualified teachers in some private universities remains unaddressed,» he said.
According to the head of the department, cases of fictitious employment of teachers in several universities at once have also been revealed.
«The requirement to teach foreign students in English is violated everywhere. Testing has shown that only a third of teachers at private universities speak English at the proper level,» he added.
