Students of the School of Hygiene in Ho Tuesday besieged the premises of the Volta Regional Coordinating Council to demand a restoration of their allowances same as what has been done for nursing trainees in the country.
Clad in red arm bands, the aggrieved students marched from the school premises with placards amidst brass band music to the Regional administration, protesting their exclusion from the payment of the allowances.
According to them, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) during the 2016 election campaign promised to restore the allowances to trainees of all health training institutions including those hygiene schools and it was therefore surprising that, they have been left out.
“During the campaigns last year, Nana Akufo-Addo told us in Accra that, if we help him to come to power, he will restore the allowances of all health trainees not just nursing and midwifery trainees. So we’re shocked with this selective restoration. We as hygiene students are also part of the health trainees in this country,” one student told Graphic Online during the protest march.
Petition
A petition presented to the Regional Coordinating Council by Students’ Representative Council secretary, Mr. Kweku Afful, stated that, their leadership together with the principals of the Schools of Hygiene in Accra, Tamale and Ho participated in a stakeholders’ forum organised by the Ministry of Health in August 2017 on the restoration of the allowance, where they presented details including valid bank and ezwich accounts in anticipation of the allowance payment.
However, since the restoration of the payment in September 2017, no student from the hygiene school has receive a dim and petitions to the Ministry of Water and Sanitation as well as Ministry of Health has yielded no positive response, he added.
Mr. Afful also hinted of a nationwide sit down strike by the students in the coming weeks if their concerns were not addressed satisfactorily.
Response
The Deputy Volta Regional Minister, Mr. Maxwell Blagodzi, who received the petition on behalf of the Regional Minister, assured that, their concerns would be appropriately addressed and urged them to exercise restraint.
“Your demonstration today for me is a clear testimony that the restoration of the allowances to the nursing and teacher trainees is something very significant government has done in this country and you’re in no way going to be left out of these allowance process. I want to give you the assurance that this petition would be given the needed attention,” he stated.
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