Anatomy education in Ethiopia - the effect of school background on medical school performance

Year 2019, Volume: 13 Issue: 2, 122 - 125, 31.08.2019

Abebe Ayalew Bekel , Dawit Habte Woldeyes Yibeltal Wubale Adamu Mengstu Desalegn Kiros Shibabaw Tedila Truneh Belta Asnakew Abegaz

Abstract

Objectives: In Ethiopia, western modern education has been introduced in 1908, though there has been traditional education
starting from the entrance of Christianity in Ethiopia in the sixth century. Currently, there are thousands of government
and private schools in the country. The objective of this study is to identify who scores well in anatomy in the university;
students coming from government or private schools?

Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used to assess the effect of high school background on medical students’ performance
in anatomy among 120 randomly selected students at Bahir Dar University College of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Results: Anatomy is given for medical students as separate course in regional approach for ten months after they complete premed
courses as five hours lecture and one hour practical session per week. Students than take an exam with theoretical and
practical parts, after completion of each region. Out of 120 randomly selected students about 64% joined the university from
government schools and the rest were from private schools. From the government school group, only 17% of the students
scored low. However, out of the total private school students 40% were low scorers. There was a statistically significant correlation
between school background and medical student performance in anatomy (p=0.007). The odds of private school students
performance in anatomy was 3.22 times lower than those of government school students (p=0.007)

Conclusion: Students graduated from government high schools perform better in academics than students graduated from
private schools.

Keywords

government school, performance, private school

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