Nurses' trainees call for downward review of school/feeding fees

Tamale, Nov. 25, GNA - The Ghana Nurses and Midwives Trainees Association (GNMTA) has appealed to the Ministry of Health (MOH) to call on the Principals of the nursing training institutions to review payment of their school and feeding fees, which was on the high side. The Association said there were discrepancies between the approved fees from the MOH and those being charged by some Principals of the various Nursing Training Colleges.

This was contained in a press release signed by Mr Abdullai A. Jalil, Public Relations Officer on behalf of Mr Alhassan Hfiz, National President of the Association and issued to the GNA in Tamale on Tuesday. The Association said for instance the approved fees from the MOH stipulated that fresh students were to pay a sum of GHc 383.00 whilst continuing students were to pay GHc 338.50, however the Principals were charging far beyond these amounts.

The Association said the most baffling aspect of the fees was that it had to do with feeding, explaining that just last year students paid between GHc 15.00 and Ghc 20.00 as feeding per month. They said this had now been increased to GHc 50.00 per month The Association said what was disturbing about the fees was that at the time of their admissions it was stated categorically on their admission letters that, "We shall contribute 40 percent of our trainee allowance towards feeding, boarding and lodging". "However right now we are paying 100 percent of our allowance towards feeding. This means that we pay feeding fee of GHc50.00 whilst our allowance is GHc 48.00", the Association said. The Association said the reason given by most Principals on the sudden increases was that, the government's subsidy on feeding had been withdrawn and as such, raising the fees was the only way of continuing with feeding in the institutions.

"We are therefore appealing to the government to as a matter of urgency to, re-instate the subsidy as soon as possible if it is really committed to increasing the quality and the quantity of nurses and midwives in the country," the Association said. In the meantime however, the Association appealed to the school heads through the MOH to make the feeding optional or operate cafeterias as was being done in the universities.

They said that if the options were not possible then the school fee should be reduced to at least 50 percent, "Otherwise we cannot comply". The Association pointed out that these appeals had been brought to the attention of the MOH for over a month now without any response, saying; "meanwhile our members have come under enormous pressure to pay these fees or face sanctions".