Scrapping Nursing Trainee Allowance: KNUST NDC TEIN Lauds Prez Mahama
As a youth and intellectual wing of the Governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), our attention has been drawn to an article published on Peaccefmonline.com captioned 'Gov't Set To Scrap Trainee Nurses Allowance, 24/03/2014' indicating an agreement that has been reached for the scrapping of allowances paid to trainee nurses across the country as far back as 31st January 2014.
According to the agreement, trainee nurses currently in school will receive the allowances but new entrants for the 2014/2015 academic year, will not receive the allowance and will consequently not be bonded by Government.
“The continuing students in level 100, 200 and level 300 doing their diploma courses will be given their allowances in full, but those who will be admitted this year, we all came to a mutual conclusion that they won't be receiving the allowance. They will be migrated to the student loans scheme. Also the community and health assistants, those doing the certificate courses, they will also receive fifty percent of the allowance they received initially.
This new development is not only a welcoming good news to us but its shows government's unwavering decision to putting people first. In our 2012 manifesto we of the NDC had promised the good people of Ghana to;
a. Expand the existing Midwifery and Nurses Training Colleges and establish new colleges in under-served areas
b. Work with the Nurses and Midwifery Council to re-introduce the Certificate in Midwifery Training Programme and in conjunction with the private sector establish more facilities for the training of auxiliary nurses to lower the current nurse-patient ratio.
c. Provide opportunities for auxiliary nurses including those under the National Youth Employment Programme, to move up the professional ladder.
d. Double the number of Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds from about 1,600 to about 3,200 to meet the needs of under-served communities.
For Ghana to provide quality healthcare to the citizenry ; all hands are needed on deck to implement all this good policies since the purpose for the introduction of the trainee allowance has been oversubscribed to outlived its purpose while prospective applicants are been denied of admission in every academic year. We of the NDC promised Ghanaians of increasing enrolment in the teacher trainee colleges from 9000 t0 12000 applicants in the 2013/2014 academic year, but owing to the scraping of their respective allowances, student's enrolment increased to over 13000.
Besides, this scrapped allowance could be used to augment President Mahama- and – government appointees 'pay cut' policy to build more CHPS compounds in remote areas in pursuance of advancing the Better Ghana agenda.
We are also wary of obvious Better Ghana disparagers who would characteristically call a bluff of the new development to achieve cheap, weird and poor political gimmicks. However, we take much solace in His Excellency Pres ident John Dramani Mahama's decisive persona to fully see to the implementation of the new development.
The nursing trainees like the teacher trainees are all inclusive in the Colleges of Education bill per their upgrading into Tertiary statuses since no student under such category are paid allowances in the country, consequently what applied to the teacher trainees must be applied to all.
As social democrats, we ( NDC ) remains committed to the implementation of policies and investment in programs that will enhance the productive capacity of our people, contribute to our collective and individual abilities and guarantee a better quality of life for all Ghanaians.
We further want to entreat the youth wing of our dear party out there, to direct the energies more into propagating the good policies the government since the defines our unique character. Forward TEIN, forward NDC, forward President Mahama, and forward Ghana. God bless us all.
Signed...
Shadrack Ahiable
KNUST NDC TEIN President