The National Executive Board (NEB) of Ghana Nurse-Midwife Trainees’ Association (GNMTA) has indicated that the GH¢150 allowance government has offered to pay them is inadequate to meet the purpose for which it is being issued.
According to NEB, GNMTA is still negotiating with the government and other relevant stakeholders on the agreement on a said amount to be paid as allowance satisfying to both parties.
“We expected that at least we should be given 50 percent of the amount (GH¢495) which we were supposed to receive as per the agreement arrived at during the negotiation with government,” Akazee Godwin Asabire, National President of GNMTA, said.
He said the 50 percent was agreed on because government promised to cover other educational expenses like their clinical fees and other consumables for their training, but that has not been done, adding that the money is just too meagre to cater for their educational needs.
“We use our own money to pay for our clinical training because government has failed to do what it promised,” he said.
Earlier this week, government announced the acceptance of the recommendation of the technical committee set up by President John Mahama to review the issue of nursing students’ allowances which government had initially scrapped.
However, the ministry indicated that the students nurses will receive GH¢150 a month for the over 34,500 students, instead of the 495 allowance for the health professionals who are currently pursuing various levels of health professional training across the country.
“The payment amount would serve as a bridging mechanism pending the amendment of the Students Loan Trust Act, to enable students in non-tertiary health training institutions access loans to support their education,” it added.
The association which is not happy with government’s treatment of the students has, therefore, directed all trainee nurses and midwives to stay put in any form filling and exercise restraint and remain calm and resolute as the executives forge ahead to negotiate in order to have all of its concerns and what is long overdue them addressed.
They said should the students fill the forms, it means GNMTA has agreed to receive such proposed amount by the committee set up by President Mahama, and that all other plans that have been streamlined to get the association’s concerns sorted out would be grounded to a halt.
“Any student who signs this form without first hearing from their only legal mouthpiece is not only betraying GNMTA but by such act is seriously seeking to defeat all our own toils and progress chucked so far,” a release by NEB stated.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri