Some of the nurses during the demonstration in Kumasi on Friday
Hundreds of members of the Ghana Nurses and Midwives Trainee Association (GNMTA) on Friday hit the streets of Kumasi to protest against maltreatment in the hands of government.
Chief among their numerous concerns is the exorbitant school fees being charged them, which they bemoaned, was creating nightmarish experiences for virtually all nursing trainee students in the country.
They also expressed gross worry over high utility bills and astronomical school feeding fees, which they lamented, was posing a huge financial quagmire for parents and guardians of the trainee nurses.
The demonstrators who wore red arm bands and chanted war songs as they moved through the principal streets of the Ashanti regional capital also kicked against the GH¢150 monthly allowance granted to them by government, asking their members not to sign up for the money until they receive instructions from the leadership.
Speaking with DAILY GUIDE, Jonathan Yelfaari, National Vice President of the GNMTA, charged government to quickly address the numerous concerns that his group had raised, if not, they would demonstrate again in Accra on August 15.
According to him, some nursing schools now charge as much as GH¢3,000 per a semester, an amount which includes feeding fees and utility bills, insisting that the amount is too huge for the students to bear.
Mr Yelfaari said the amount being charged the nursing trainees as school fees doesn’t correspond with the tuition that they (nurses) are receiving from school, urging government to ensure that the school fees is slashed.
He disclosed also that the GH¢150 that government had announced as monthly allowance fee for nursing trainees is too small, saying that trainee nurses contribute 40 percent of healthcare delivery in the country, so they deserve better.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi