The students of the Dunkwa Nursing and Midwifery Training College in Dunkwa-on-Offin in the Central Region who arrived in Accra in buses on Monday to demand the payment of their allowances left Accra for school about 11.45 a.m. yesterday.
This follows discussions with the newly appointed Minister of Health, Mr Alex Segbefia.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that authorities of the school had submitted the names of only 47 students to receive their allowances from the Ministry of Health (MoH).
The authorities left out the names of more than 800 students who, while agitating for the payment of their allowances, went to Accra to picket at the Black Star Square on Monday.
“I cannot fathom why a school would send a list of 47 out of over 800 students. I’m lost. But, as a ministry, this is an internal issue and we will look into it to see who really created this mess for us and deal with it,” the Public Relations Officer of the ministry, Mr Tony Goodman, told the Daily Graphic.
He said in the future, the ministry would double check whatever list was submitted from the various schools to prevent a recurrence.
“If schools are grossly under-reporting the number of students they have for allowances, it could also mean that they are sending us bloated lists. We have to put mechanisms in place to verify the lists sent to the ministry,” he stated.
The students, who claimed they were owed three years’ allowance, had earlier pitched camp at the Black Star Square in Accra but later moved to the premises of the MoH to spend the night.
“We know that as a father he will not make empty promises. He was sworn in just yesterday and we trust his competence,” a spokesperson for the students, Mathias Cosmos Fredua, said of the Minister of Health.
According to the students, the ministry owed each of them between GH¢9,600 and GH¢12,600 as allowances for the last three years.
Mr Fredua said representatives of the student body would meet the minister next week Friday to draw a road map for the payment of their allowances.
Meanwhile, some of the students indicated their resolve to go back to the ministry if their grievances were not addressed in two weeks.
Mr Goodman could not give a definite timeline for the payments but said efforts were being made to address the grievances.
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