Damascus-SANA
The People's Assembly, in its twenty-second session of the third regular session of the third legislative session, chaired by Hammouda Sabbagh, Speaker of the Assembly, discussed the performance of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and issues related to its work.
In a presentation on what the ministry has accomplished in the first half of this year, the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Bassam Ibrahim, stressed that during the upcoming general comparison, the focus will be on promoting admission to all disciplines required by the labor market and the data of economic and social development, indicating that the comparison this year will be electronic to provide an opportunity Registration in front of any student through the software prepared by the Ministry.
Minister Ibrahim indicated that the central differentiation will be applied to private universities to benefit from all academic seats and achieve justice and equal opportunities, while the rate of entering student data within the automation project and linking universities among them has reached more than 80 percent, and there is an expansion of services provided through citizen service centers in universities.
The Minister of Higher Education indicated that the universities began to scrutinize 961 applications for applicants to the competition for the appointment of faculty members, and there are 625 opportunities to appoint teaching assistants, except for those appointed as early graduates, explaining that there are about 450 opportunities to send graduates appointed in public authorities to scientific missions.
In their interventions, a number of members stressed the need to increase the number of beds and intensive care rooms in educational hospitals and to put projects that are close to completion in service, and to exclude university hospitals from the central drug procurement system to secure their need for medicines and medical supplies, calling for the abolition of the preparatory year and the national examination and the activation of evening education in Universities.
The members pointed out the importance of unifying study plans in universities, looking into the reasons for the large difference in the prices of medical services between government and private hospitals, securing cancer and chronic medicines, opening new departments in colleges in the governorates, increasing the number of teaching staff, providing support to all universities, securing decent university housing, and limiting the high rates of admission in Universities and graduate studies, which led to a decrease in the number of medical specialties.
Some members called for improving incentives and compensating the specialization and nature of work for specialist doctors, asking about the reasons for the delay in issuing graduation decisions in a number of public and private universities, the reasons for the low rate of implementation of the project to build the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Aleppo compared to last year, and the reason for stopping work in the building of the Faculty of Dentistry in Al-Hasakah and the failure of a number of Senior in the National Examination, demanding to increase the reward for the first students and the number of graduates of technical and vocational education in colleges whose specializations match the needs of the market.
In response to the interventions, Minister Ibrahim stressed that there is great pressure on educational hospitals as a result of the increase in prices in private hospitals, and the ministry seeks to develop its work permanently according to the available capabilities, explaining that more than 80 percent of each of the central ambulance hospital in Al-Mowasat and the annex of Al-Assad University Hospital have been completed.
He pointed out that all the recommendations and proposals that came out of the workshop on the national examination and the preparatory year will be studied by the Higher Education Council, indicating that a decision will soon be taken regarding amending the retirement age for faculty members according to actual need, reputation, competence and physical health. As for the linear accelerator at Al-Biruni Hospital, it will enter service almost.
Minister Ibrahim indicated that during the first five months of this year, cosmetics were supplied as external contracts through the General Foreign Trade Corporation with about 89 billion pounds, of which 45 percent are cancer drugs, in addition to concluding internal contracts through the same institution to supply products worth 23 billion, of which 48 percent are cancer drugs.
He pointed out that the right to be appointed to public authorities for graduates of applied and health colleges is guaranteed, but it needs time.
The session, which was attended by Minister of State for People's Assembly Affairs Abdullah Abdullah, was adjourned to 11 am tomorrow, Thursday.
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