Teenage Dr in the making

AT his age, his friends are playing football but 16-year-old Ranenthraa Sreenivas Rao is already in university and on his way to becoming a doctor.

Ranenthraa enrolled in Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU), Indonesia last August, just one month after his 15th birthday.

He has always wanted to become a doctor, ever since his grandmother suffered a stroke four years ago.

After seeing the way his grandmother suffered and knowing that his family has a history of the disease, Ranenthraa said he wanted to be able to help others who faced such life-threatening conditions.

Getting a headstart

He studied in a government school until he was 10 before his parents transferred him to an international school in Kajang for two years to expose him to the O-Levels syllabus.

Once he got a taste of what the O-Levels would be like, he was taken out and then homeschooled to prepare for the examinations.

His father, Siva Prakash Rao, has a background in engineering and computer science, and is adept in Mathematics.

He took it upon himself to teach Ranenthraa the subject. Other subjects such as Chemistry and Biology were taught by a personal tutor.

Ranenthraa did not sit for the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah exam but thanks to his parents carefully crafting his education route and remaining actively involved in it, Ranenthraa was able to sit for his O-Levels exam when he was just 13-years-old.

“Homeschooling is not easy as the student must have the ability to learn things fast because there isn’t anyone to coach them full-time.

“On top of that, both my wife and I are working and also need to concentrate on our jobs,” said Siva Prakash.

He added that they were fortunate that Ranenthraa could grasp concepts quickly. The bright lad scored four Bs for his O-Levels.

Ranenthraa had applied to many other universities and had received offers to study medicine in Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia, and Moscow State University, Russia.

He chose USU as it has a unique medical course structure and was more affordable.

Students undergo three years in the undergraduate programme that is composed mainly of classroom education before continuing another two years in the professional programme that includes rotations in clinical settings where students learn patient care firsthand.

If they pass the undergraduate programme, they will have “S.Ked” as their title and once they finish the professional programme, they will become a general physician and receive the “Dr” (doctor) title.

Ranenthraa studied at Goon Institute for the varsity’s preparation examination that was held at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia just two months before the medical semester at USU began.

Currently, his parents are funding his education but he is looking for a sponsor to ease their burden.

When asked why Ranenthraa did not apply for scholarships before accepting the offer, Siva Prakash said there was not enough time as his son had to leave for Indonesia.

“Also, scholarships for medical courses are not easy to come by,” he said.

The Indo experience

“I am currently not taking Bahasa Indonesia lessons. However, I have no trouble conversing with my lecturers as they can understand Bahasa Malaysia due to it being similar to Bahasa Indonesia,” said Ranenthraa.

He added that studying medicine in Indonesia was not easy but he was not complaining.

His favourite subject is Physiology while Anatomy is his least favourite.

Although everything is conducted in Bahasa Indonesia, he has a set of lecture notes which have been translated to English.

He added that the final examinations are conducted in the local language but it is not hard to adapt although some translation is required.

He is currently living on-campus and is blending in well among his peers on campus.

“My university friends have no idea of my actual age and I have never found the need to tell them,” said Ranenthraa.

He does not feel homesick and has easily adapted to life on campus, adding that he has formed a “family” of friends in Indonesia.

Just like many other students, he has his share of instant noodles when it comes to meals but confides that he frequents an Indian food shop in front of the university.

The ardent Chelsea fan said his favourite player is Eden Hazard and that he once harboured dreams of becoming a professional football player.

Attesting to his son’s football mania, Siva Prakash said Ranenthraa would stay awake and watch every match, even if it was being shown at 3am!

“At 5pm everyday, he will definitely head to the field to play futsal.

“Even if the whole family is on an outing, he will bug his mother to hurry up and take him home so he can join his friends for a game,” said Siva Prakash.

“Both my other sons are not as enthusiastic about football as him,” he added.

Ranenthraa’s love for football was not left behind in Malaysia as he has competed in a varsity-level futsal tournament “Juga Bunito Futsal” in Indonesia and still plays there during his free time.

This is also the first time he has participated in a futsal tournament even though he played quite often in Malaysia.

Ranenthraa said he wants to return to Malaysia and do his housemanship here.

He wants to specialise in neurology as he said a Canadian study has revealed a link between the nervous system and diabetes, and he hopes to carry out further research on this.