The Private Universities Students’ Association of Ghana (PUSAG) has expressed worry over President John Dramani Mahama’s response to a question relating to the employment of nurses by the Ministry of Health at the Press Briefing last Tuesday. Below is the press statement released by the Association.
14th January, 2016
NO NEED TO SUPPORT PRESIDENT MAHAMA IF SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE IS COUPLED WITH ANTI PRIVATE EDUCATIONAL AND TRAINING INSTITUTIONS DECISIONS
The leadership of the Private Universities Students’ Association of Ghana (PUSAG) and the entire PUSAG fraternity took a clear chance on the President of the Republic’s response to government addressing joblessness with focus on nurses’ absorption by Ministry of Health on 12th January, 2016 at the press briefing. We want to respectfully bring to the attention of the President and the government the need to reconsider the intention of his statement which has already been evidenced over the years as a visionary leader.
In response to why some nurses have not been absorbed by the Ministry of Health, he stated emphatically that, the situation is as a result of the Ministry considering nurses (graduates) from private institutions first and putting the interest of our counterparts from the public institutions at the rear. However, the reverse should be the case; therefore the Ministry should act in this direction as reported on http://m.classfmonline.com/1.8555339 (Ghana/ClassFMonline.com/91.3fm).
We want to respectfully bring to the notice of the president that the reverse is not the antidote to the unemployment cases in the country. It will be prudent to gain mastery in revising curricula to build capacities of students to make them problem solvers. At this point, quality will be paramount in decision making and would fuel decisions of who to admit into job schemes.
The advent and existence of private institutions in the country have contributed meaningfully to improving the literacy rate while breeding captains of both the Private and Public sectors of the country. It has also reduced the burden on government’s low infrastructure resources to provide quality education for the numerous students who complete from the senior high schools yearly with good grades.
Since existence of the ruling government, its social democratic antics keeps crippling private institutions and churning out our interests and hope as products of private educational institutions. At least we believed that under such social democratic governance, the economic managers would be the champions of the welfare state and equality through democracy as opposed to the current case of completely ignoring the private institution.
We the students of private universities for example are at the verge of ignoring the government as a partner to support our intellectual and economic advancement. Our tears from the cries of equally benefiting from GETFUND, hikes in tuition fees due to surging affiliation dues to mentoring public institutions and inconsiderate taxes with mind boggling tariffs are yet to be wiped by promises made by the government.
WHY WE SHOULD ALL BE GIVEN EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES.
Almost all Private Universities and other Private Institutions in the country at the moment operate under the auspices and supervision of the mentoring public institutions to which the private institutions are affiliated. These institutions are obliged to nurture and regulate the programmes we offer in our institutions.
At the end of students programmes, we are audited by these public institutions to make sure that we match the standard after which certification follows. Why then should the case be that student nurses and the entire general graduates from public institutions be given priority over their contemporary counterparts in Private institutions. This clearly means that students from private institutions are also products of the public institutions so by default and equal opportunities should be granted.
The plights of private institutions have been forwarded to the respective ministries and agencies for review and clarification over the years but the President’s comments leaves us with fear that the present government does not consider the need for equal coexistence of the private and public institutions. We want to believe the Ministry selects personnel on the basis of merit which ensures that quality and excellence are not omitted and so therefore we are calling on the President to rescind the directive as soon as practicable. In case the President has exhausted all possible measures in tackling the issue of posting then quality should be a standard of measure and relevant expansion.
We are also calling on the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Labour and Employment Relations, the Ministry of Health, the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice to come and add their honorary voices to ours and reshape the directive of the President and Government. His Excellency John Mahama and his government can be assured that it would definitely lose all its threads in the support fabric of our constituents if such uncalled prejudice is the benchmark for his administration.
Thank you.
Long live PUSAG. Long live Ghana. Long live students’ activism.
Asante Kwabena Francis
Media Relations Director, PUSAG
+233 24 267 7779
Richard Odame
National President, PUSAG
+233 24 394 4302
