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The Minority on the Health Committee of Parliament has kicked against government’s directive to various Nursing Training Colleges across the country to reserve 30% admission quota for the Ministry of Health.

The Ministry of Health in a letter dated August 2, 2022, signed by its Chief Director, Kwabena Boadu Oku-Afari, directed nursing training colleges across the country to reserve 30 per cent approved admission quota for the 2022/2023 academic year for the ministry.

It also directed the institutions to charge GHS150 per prospective students scheduled for interview, issue a general counterfoil receipt to the interviewees and 34 per cent of the proceeds from the interview be deposited into the health training institutions account at the Bank of Ghana.

This directive comes on the back of a reduction in the admission quotas to the institutions following the reinstatement of the nursing training allowances.

But at a press conference on Monday, 15 August 2022, the Minority described the situation as a “recipe for unbridled corruption.”

Addressing the media, the Ranking Member on the committee Kwabena Mintah Akandoh said “We see these new directives as an attempt by government to clear a path that makes room for protocol admissions of party apparatchiks, candidates with deep pockets and those who under normal circumstances would not gain admissions.”

He also supported calls for a review of the nursing trainee allowance policy to allow for a hybrid system.

“Information available to us is that principals of Nursing Training Colleges have suggested that government should in the interim consider a hybrid system that admits both allowances receiving and non-allowance receiving students if payment of allowances is becoming a challenge for government,” Mr. Akandoh said.