Government has given the green light to all health training institutions across the country to begin admission of persons wishing to pursue nursing and its related courses.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Health to all principals of the various institutions read in part: “…applications into Health Training Institutions commences from April 3, to 29th May 2017”.
Cost of the application form, which is now strictly online, has been reduced from the previous GHC160 to GHC100.
The government through the Ministry had earlier in January this year ordered the health training institutions to cease the sale of admission forms for the 2017/2018 academic year.
READ: Sale of nursing admission forms suspended
A memo dated January 18, 2017 and signed by Chief Director of the Health Ministry, Dr. Afisah Zakariah, suggested similar directive, which was given earlier, is being flouted by the training schools.
“The attention of the Ministry has been drawn to the continuous sale of application forms for admission into various Health Training Institutions for 2017/2018 academic year.
“This is in spite of a directive from the Ministry for the suspension of the sale of forms until further notice,” the memo, which was copied to the government Transition Team on Health read in part.
But the Ministry in a new statement signed by the Director of Human Resource in charge of Health Development Lawoetey Tettey, invited online applications from qualified candidates for the 2017/2018 academic year.
Changes introduced
The statement announced some new changes in the application processes which will now be done purely online.
Applicants are required to buy a GHC100-voucher from either any branch of Ghana Commercial Bank or the Agricultural Development Bank for the online application. Alternatively, applicants can use MTN Mobile Money to make the payment.
“The ministry of Health admission portal has been linked to the West African Examination Council (WAEC) portal, as such students will only need to provide the index numbers and WAEC would provide verified results on the forms,” the statement said.
It said there will not be the need for EMS envelopes as all notifications would be done via online and through SMS.
Accordingly, all ICT and Admission Officers would be trained on the changes, and Principals of all the health training institutions are expected to meet the Health Minister on the new modalities.
By Stephen Kwabena Effah|3news.com|Ghana
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