Education Minister, Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, has assured that her ministry is working with the necessary parties to resolve the issue of some 40 young nursing students whose nursing programme was abruptly aborted.
Gadsby-Dolly, in a GML interview, stated: “The MoE has sent the student information to COSTAATT to facilitate the registration of the students, and the MoE and COSTAATT are liaising to progress this.”
She added that over the past months, the ministry has taken a close review of the Government’s Basic General Nursing Programme, which has a number of challenges, including facilities and physical and human resources. She said the ministry’s programme, even at full capacity, can accommodate less than 100 students per cohort.
“UWI, COSTAATT and USC all offer the BSc in Basic General Nursing, with access to GATE funding, and in the case of COSTAATT, an additional government stipend. The facilities and resources of each of those three institutions far surpass the capacity of the MoE’s programme; they can and do accommodate hundreds of students per year. The pass rates of the students of all four training institutions at the Nursing Council’s examination show no significant difference,” the Minister said.
“In light of these facts, the decision has been taken to suspend the MoE’s Basic General Nursing Programme, and arrangements are being made to transfer the new students to COSTAATT’s programme. The other specialised training courses run by the MoE’s Nursing Department are not affected by this decision, as they are not faced with the same level of challenges, and are not available at the other institutions, as Basic General Nursing is.”