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Most senior high school graduates who have successfully met the admission requirements of nursing training colleges and have applied for admission will not be admitted because government has imposed a quota on the schools.

The imposition of the quota has, therefore, reduced admissions by half, and this directly contradicts government’s position that allowances for teacher and nursing training students be scrapped in order to increase enrolment at training institutions.

A letter from the Ministry of Health to principals of nursing training colleges warned that those who do not strictly abide by the quota will be sanctioned.

Checks by The Finder at the Health Ministry confirmed that a quota has been imposed, and the explanation is that training has to be controlled so that the state will be in a position to employ graduates of such schools.

Quota imposed on nursing training colleges

Schools that have been admitting 200 students per programme such as State Registered Nursing, Community Health Nursing and Certificate Nursing have been asked to admit 100 students for each of the programmes.

This means that a school that runs the three programmes mentioned above has to cut its total admission to 300 students instead of the 600 which it would have admitted without the quota.

Over 2,000 qualified candidates applied for State Registered Nursing in one training college, but with the quota, only 100 will be offered admission.

Already, over 2,000 qualified nurses and midwives who successfully completed National Service do not have jobs.

They are putting pressure on government to offer them employment, but the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) conditionality of  reducing the public sector wage bill to tax revenue from 50% in 2014 to about 35% ties government’s hands from fresh employment. 

The Ministry of Health has written to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning for clearance to employ the over 2,000 qualified nurses and midwives, but the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning says there is no money.

Unaccredited schools

Last week, the National Accreditation Board (NAB) warned prospective candidates to stay away from over 50 unaccredited tertiary institutions.

However, the large number of qualified candidates who cannot gain admission into tertiary institutions risk attending unaccredited tertiary institutions.

Public universities to reduce intake

The threat by Vice-Chancellors of Ghana (VCGs) to cut down on student enrolment in order to deal with the twin problems of large class sizes and dwindling academic staff can best be described as self-imposed quota that fits into government’s plan to reduce the number of graduates churned out every.

According to the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), all the public universities are operating at student-teacher ratios (STRs) far in excess of the approved norms of the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) because government has placed a ban on employment of fresh lecturers.

Government has also placed a ban on the engagement of part-time lecturers who, otherwise, would have ameliorated the situation. 

For instance, the STR for Social Sciences and Humanities by the NCTE norm is 27:1 as against the current situation of 100:1. 

Such a high ratio, UTAG said, was an indication of “inadequate academic staff which compromises the quality of teaching, learning, and research” insisting that, “indeed, such an adverse ratio inhibits the universities from developing new programmes to meet current developmental needs of the nation.”

 Aside that, UTAG said the situation puts undue stress on the few and dwindling academic staff of the universities.