Member of Parliament for the Bongo Constituency in the Upper East Region, Edward Bawa, has described as outrageous, fees charged by Nursing Training Colleges in the country, and wants government to urgently intervene.
He says the situation has prevented many people from becoming nurses, and has put pressure on female nursing trainees to depend on men who take advantage of them, to enable them complement what parents give to them to pay their fees.
In a Citi News interview after providing some financial support to fifty tertiary students in the Bongo district, the Bongo legislator could not fathom why diploma nursing students are paying far more than degree nursing students in the universities, and wondered if the nursing colleges were charging approved fees by Parliament.
“There has been this consistent increment of fees ranging from GHC3, 000 plus in the nursing training colleges. So if you have a diploma nursing student who pays higher than a degree nursing student in the universities, then there is something wrong. What are the modalities in admitting these students and when they are admitted, what are the actual fees approved by the Ministry of Health to be charged, because what is the logic in making a diploma nursing student pay more than a degree nursing student? It means that, you are using money as basis to eliminate those who otherwise would have volunteered to be good nurses in this country.”
Edward Bawa, who bemoaned the negative effects on the trainees especially the females, called on Parliament to probe the matter and bring sanity to the nursing colleges.
“What is then happening is that, you have families who will have to almost sell every bit of what they have to pay for a single ward in the nursing college while some female trainees are sexually exploited by men to compliment their efforts to pay these unreasonable high fees.”
He called on the Ministry of Health to swiftly intervene to sanitize the situation or else parliament will not hesitate to take the matter up.
Mr. Bawa gave financial assistance of GHC300 each to fifty vulnerable second cycle and tertiary students to support their education.
Some beneficiary students expressed their gratitude to the MP and called on philanthropists, benevolent organizations and senior citizens of Bongo to extend a helping hand to needy but brilliant students in the area.
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By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana