Medical School!

In Uganda, medicine, as is law, is an undergraduate major.  Accordingly, after completing one year of nursery school (same as our kindergarten), seven years of primary schools, and six years of secondary school, those wanting to practice medicine enroll directing into an undergraduate university.

Admission into university in Uganda is based entirely upon a weighted average of three national exams.  The first takes place after primary school, the second after the fourth year of secondary school, and the third at the end of the sixth year of secondary school.  This weighted average results in the university applicant being assigned a total number of “points.”  The applicants apply to universities and rank in order of preference their top three choices of majors.

The first set of admissions goes out in May for the small percentage of those admitted under government sponsorship (full ride paid by government).  The rest of the admissions (private admission) are announced in late July – one month before school starts.  These admissions are based entirely on total points.  There are no GPAs or personal essays to be considered at all.

Some universities and some majors are highly competitive, and some are not.  The top school in the country is Makerere and the most competitive major is medicine.  Henry, the young man I met in a juvenile prison in January of 2010, graduated from the top science secondary school in the country in November and applied to several universities, hoping to study medicine.  When he was in primary school, Henry had a dream of becoming the first in his family to attend university.  While in juvenile prison during secondary school, Henry doubled down on his hope and dreamed of going to medical school so he could become a doctor.

Last week, Henry’s dream took one step closer to becoming a reality with his admission to medical school at Kampala International University – the top private university.  (At Makerere, Henry came up just short of being admitted in medicine, but he was the student with the highest number of points admitted into his second choice of majors).

Earlier this week, Henry traveled to Ishaka, where KIU’s medical school and teaching hospital are located, to register for classes and to secure accommodations for the semester.  He couldn’t be happier, and we couldn’t be more proud of him for working so hard and coming so far after spending two of his teenage years wrongly detained in juvenile prison.

Henry and I are also deeply indebted to my folks (John and Rosella Gash) and to dear friends Amy and Colin Batchelor, who volunteered to co-sponsor the costs of Henry’s medical school.  What a blessing they are.

Henry starts medical school on Monday, August 25^th (five-years of school, one year of residency) and continues to work through the process of securing his family’s land against attempts by unscrupulous relatives to seize the land following the death of Henry’s father.  The registration process is long and expensive, but progress is being made each week.

We are grateful for the interest and prayers that have propelled Henry down this path, and we would appreciate more prayers as he begins his career in medicine.

We continue to await the ruling in Henry’s appeal, which was argued in March of 2013.  We have been told to expect something in September . . .

Meanwhile, the Gashes have successfully relocated to London for the fall semester where I will be teaching and directing the law school’s program.  Jessica will be with us for a month before she heads to Florence, Italy for the fall and spring semesters.