Erick J. Mazyala: Challenges in Transforming Medical Schools in Tanzania

Medical professors throughout the globe have a similar role of ensuring that future doctors acquire adequate training to provide competent and safe care.

In Tanzania, as is the case for the majority of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), the need for doctors is exceedingly high. Life expectancy is 43.5 years compared to 78.9 in developed countries. Doctor: population ratio in Tanzania stands at 1:30,000, well below the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended doctor: population ratio of 1:1,000. Most of the deaths in Tanzania and LDCs in general are due to preventable or curable causes. This is most often due to limited access to basic healthcare. In poor resource settings and a tropical climate, conditions are ripe for parasites and infectious diseases, many of which remain neglected.

Tanzania endorsed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000, but we are far from meeting the 2015 targets. For example, according to data from 2008, infant mortality is 68/1000 live births, under-five mortality rate is 112/1,000 live births, and maternal mortality is 578/100,000 live births. The proportion of the population below the basic needs poverty line (earning less than $1 per day) is 33 %.

Availability of healthcare givers who are competent enough to deliver primary healthcare and correctly diagnose diseases are in high demand in Tanzania. This will improve in the long run to ensure accessibility of primary healthcare to the community. Medical institutions such as Bugando’s university in Mwanza are trying hard to expand student enrollment to reduce the deficit of physicians. With this in mind, being a medical academic at Bugando’s university, I feel overburdened, yet privileged, charged with the responsibility of nurturing future doctors.

With better infrastructure and information technology (IT), we will be able to transform the curriculum to a more student-centered approach in which students can become more active learners via problem-based learning (PBL). As is the case in most sub-Saharan African medical schools, Internet connectivity and IT, an indispensable entity in modernizing medical trainings, is underdeveloped. The relatively small faculty size is another serious challenge.

The Touch Foundation, through charity donations from the international community, has been working tirelessly with the people of Tanzania to support the training of doctors and other healthcare workers at Bugando’s university. However, there is still a long way to go in improving physical infrastructures such as lecture theaters, laboratories, IT facilities, and expanding the faculty to match the high student enrollment.

Dr. Erick J. Mazyala is an Assistant Lecturer in the Anatomy and Histology Department of Bugando University College of Health Sciences (BUCHS), which is the second largest medical school in Tanzania and is supported by the Touch Foundation.