Regularise our admissions or give us our fees — Nursing students
Students of the St John of God Nursing Training College at Sefwi Asafo in the Western Region yesterday boycotted the end-of-semester examinations and demanded that the school authorities explain the status of the school to them.
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The students wanted the school authorities to tell them whether the school had accreditation to run its courses or not.
Dressed in black and red instead of the normal green and white nursing students’ uniform, the 174 students claimed that the authorities had swindled them because they knew the school did not have the requisite accreditation.
Deceit
The students said following extensive advertisements inviting prospective students for a Diploma in Nursing programme, they bought admission forms for GH¢100 each.
They said the successful candidates were asked to pay GHc3,100 per student per semester and although the authorities claimed that the school was accredited and managed by the Catholic Church in Ghana, the National Accreditation Board, the Catholic Church and the Ghana Health Service had denied that assertion.
Closure of the school
The Sefwi District Director of Health, Dr Francis Takyie, told the Daily Graphic that the Ministry of Health was taking steps to close down the school, saying “considering the future of the students, the Health Service is working on how best to protect the interest of the affected students.”
He said the ministry did not approve the form that was sold by the school and that the school designed its own admission forms and sold them to unsuspecting students.
Dr Takyie also said the students failed to check the background of the school before purchasing their forms and seeking admission. He said there was no doubt that the students were passionate about joining the health service but purchasing forms from illegal sources had landed them in the current situation.
Prior to the closure of the school, he said, officials of the ministry would meet the parents of the students this weekend to explain the position of the ministry to them.
Background
The Daily Graphic in its January 6, 2015 edition published that the fate of 270 students of the St John of God Nursing Training College at Sefwi Asafo was unknown since the school was yet to be accredited.
During a courtesy call on him, the Western Regional Minister, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, appealed to the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Victor Asare Bampoe, to intervene and ensure the school’s accreditation in order to safeguard the future of the students.
NAB responses to the two ministers
But in its response in the January 13 edition of the Daily Graphic, the Executive Secretary of National Accreditation Board (NAB), Mr Kwame Dattey, bemoaned the pressure that political authorities exerted on the NAB to give accreditation status to unqualified institutions.
“This negative behaviour, if allowed to persist, will cripple the education sector at the tertiary level,” Mr Dattey said in an interview with the Daily Graphic.
“This is not the first time we are seeing this. This kind of attitude should never be tolerated because it gives other schools the courage to follow suit”, Mr Dattey said.