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Students appeal for rehabilitation of Ankaful Nurses College

Wed, 1 Nov 2006 Source: GNA

Ankaful (C/R), Nov. 1, GNA 96 Students of the Ankaful Nurses Training College near Cape Coast have appealed to the Ministry of Health to take immediate steps to save the College from total collapse. According to the students the College which was established in 1974 to produce nurses for the nation's psychiatric hospitals had not seen any renovations ever since but intake had tripled, putting pressure on the few facilities which had been 93crying for renovation=94. Mr Jacob Asare, President of the Students Representative Council (SRC) and Mr Selorm Anku, the Vice-President, who conducted the Ghana News Agency round the College campus during a visit described conditions at the College as 93very appalling=94.

Mr Asare said only two bathrooms, which could serve only four students at a time were available for use for over 130 residents of the male hostel.

He said the story was no different at the female hostel and added that toilet facilities were no better and students had to wade through water before reaching any of the water closets which were functioning as the plumbing system had broken down.

=93If you do not want to be late for lectures which start at 7.30 then you have to wake up by 3:00 hours to have access to the bathroom and toilet=94, the SRC President lamented.

He said the problem became compounded when students from other nursing colleges who were studying psychiatric nursing came for attachment at the College.

The SRC President said during that period the cubicles meant for two students but were containing four had to increase their numbers to six or more.

He said the rooms leaked badly, 93We use our buckets to harvest the water when it rains to prevent our belongings from getting drenched. The Dining Hall had been converted into a lecture hall for 168 students, so 93we take our meals in our sleeping rooms after we have been served in the kitchen, he said.

Mr Anku said because of inadequate tables and chairs, those available were grouped in such a way that many students could use them. He said this rendered movement in the halls very difficult. He said the only bus for the College which was acquired in 1990 and which served all purposes broke down too often because of old age. The science laboratory and the library were too small for the institution and the equipment and the books were outmoded. He appealed to the Ghana Telecom to install phone booths at vantage points on the College campus to help the students to communicate freely with the rest of the world.

The students complained that whilst the authorities of the college found it difficult to find accommodation for the first year students whose reporting date was postponed because of the lack of accommodation for them, some buildings on the compound had been hijacked by the Regional Directorate of Health Service and were being used as conference hall and dormitories for their course participants, while the University of Cape Coast was also using another as residential accommodation for some of its students.

They appealed to the Health Directorate and University to return the buildings to the College to enable the new students to report. When contacted Mrs Deborah Monney, the Principal confirmed the students' complaints and said the problem stemmed from the stigma attached to institutions that provide training for psychiatric nurses who invariably ply their trade at psychiatric hospitals. She believed that the stigma had made the College to be denied the facilities which were being provided for other nursing training colleges in the country.

The Principal appealed to the Ministry of Health to provide funds for the rehabilitation of buildings allocated to the College at the various psychiatric hospitals to ease accommodation problem facing the institution. 01 Nov. 06

Source: GNA