Allow 3 ‘pregnant’ nurses to write licensure exams - CHRAJ
The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has directed the Mampong Nurses and Midwifery Training College (MNMTC) to ensure that the three students who were barred from registering to write their licensure examination are allowed to write the examination.
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It has further ordered that the students be given the opportunity to write the examination pending the conclusion of investigations.
The order was contained in a letter addressed to the Registrar of the Nurses and Midwifery Council (NMC) and the Head of the MNMTC and copied to the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, the Minister of Health and the Executive Secretary of the Health Training Institutes Secretariat.
The school has also been instructed to file a response to a petition filed by a human rights lawyer, Mr Francis-Xavier Sosu, whose law firm, F-X Law & Associates, has taken up the case and filed a petition for the commission to intervene in the issue.
Licensure examination
The licensure examination is an external examination organised by the NMC and is the final examination that ushers students into practice if they pass it.
It is scheduled to be written in August this year, but registration for it was closed last Friday. There is, however, room for late registration.
CHRAJ orders
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Head of Public Relations and Communications at CHRAJ, Mrs Comfort Akosua Edu, said although registration for the examination elapsed last Friday, “the commission is directing them to allow the students to register”.
Asked what would happen if the school failed to help the students register, she said: “If we get to that bridge, we will cross it. After this directive, investigations are still ongoing.”
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Complaint
The Daily Graphic of May 28, 2016 reported that three student nurses of the MNMTC, including a married woman, had been denied the right to register to write their licensure examination because they were pregnant.
Although two of them had been delivered of their babies, the school authorities refused to allow them to write the examination because of a rule that had long been scrapped by the Ministry of Health.
Mr Sosu confirmed that he had received a letter from CHRAJ indicating its orders.
An excited Mr Sosu was full of praise for the commission, saying: “It is very good news and I feel great that CHRAJ has been very swift with the matter and has taken a very proactive step, particularly when the courts have been shut down because of a strike and they happen to be the human rights arm of the country.
“The least they could do is what they have just done and I hope that the various institutions will comply,” he said.
Widespread
He also said the issue was widespread and students of other institutions, including the Jirapa Nurses Training College, had called to complain about the system.
He, however, told the Daily Graphic that while he would not update the petition, “the effect of the recommendation from the investigations will be widespread, as the practice cuts across the health training system”.
The Daily Graphic also received similar complaints from the Agogo Nurses Training College in the Ashanti Region, where some students were compelled to defer their course because they were pregnant.
Mr Sosu described the incident as one that breached Article 12(1) and (2) of the 1992 Constitution and the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
The convention provides the basis for realising equality between women and men by ensuring women's equal access to, and equal opportunities in political and public life — including the right to vote and to stand for election — as well as education, health and employment.
The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, also shared the same sentiments and described the school’s decision as unconstitutional and discriminatory.