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FEMALES have been encouraged to pursue medicine as a career.
Minister of Education, Dick Ha’amori highlighted this whilst speaking at the graduation of 22 Solomon Islands medical students in Cuba recently.
Mr Ha’amori said that whilst there is still much to be done to improve gender balance in the country with regard to medicine, he said that it was pleasing to see that seven of the 22 graduating doctors were females.
“There is still much work to be done to improve gender balance in the country; however it is indeed pleasing that more and more females are taking up medicine as a career,” the minister said.
“The same goes to other important careers which many more females are taking up at Universities within the region,” he said.
Mr Ha’amori also acknowledged that 20 other medical students will be graduating from Cuba next year, bringing up the number of female doctors in the country.
“The number of doctors graduating from Cuba, Fiji and PNG will begin to close the doctor male dominant population ratio.
“The number of doctors will double within the next two years, beginning this year with more than 30 doctors graduating from three medical institutions in the Pacific and Cuba,” the Education minister said.
Mr Ha’amori encouraged more women doctors to take on specialised training in various areas of medicine.
He said that such development will put Solomon Islands on a path of achieving gender equality and women empowerment, adding that gender equality is one of the goals of the current MDGS (Millennium Development Goals).
By JEREMY INIFIRI
