Geneeskundige School

• Name — Geneeskundige School • Location — Paramaribo • Country — Suriname • Type — Higher education • Established — 1882 4 1 • Closed — 1969 9 26

Healthcare in Suriname was limited and basic outside of the capital Paramaribo. In the 1870s, the British government issued a complaint about the morality rate among indentured labourers who had been imported from India. At the time, Herman Benjamins was director of the Department of Education, and responsible for the development of the Geneeskundige School. In 1880, a motion of Coenraad van Lier to found a medical school passed in the Colonial Estates, however the States General of the Netherlands removed the plan from the budget. In 1881, a new motion was accepted. On 1 April 1882, the Geneeskundige School was opened. It offered free education in the medical profession, however it was not a university, therefore, graduates were only allowed to practise medicine in the Dutch West Indies (Suriname and the former Netherlands Antilles). Graduates were obliged to work in an assigned District for a period of six years. It was possible to continue their education at a Dutch or American university providing the student was younger than 40 years. More than 600 people graduated from the Geneeskundige School. About half later graduated from a university. About 10% were women. The school offered a 7½ year course after the Mulo (junior high school). On 26 September 1969, the Geneeskundige School was transformed to the Medische Faculteit, an academic school. In 1972, it became part of the Anton de Kom University.

• Henk Chin A Sen (1934–1999), former President of Suriname. • Sewraam Rambaran Mishre (1915–1964), physician and Deputy Prime Minister. • Sophie Redmond (1907–1955), physician and activist, first Afro-Surinamese woman to graduate from the school.