By Nana Effei
Tension is mounting at the S.D.A Nursing and Midwifery School in ASANDA, in the Western Region over the suspension of some fifty (50) first year nursing students.
The development has resulted in parents petitioning the Ministry of Health, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Headquarters of the S.D.A Church, and the Government of the Republic of Ghana.
According to a Petition issued by parents of the suspended students, the decision by the Acting Principal of the school, Mrs. Ellen Opoku Boamah to suspend the students is against the school’s Code of ethics and discipline as stated in the students’ handbook.
Information however is that, a male tutor of the school had leaked some questions of their first semester exams to a female student in the school, which later went viral on social media as students shared the questions among themselves via WhatsApp.
However, on the day of the examination, most students were caught with in the examination hall with foreign materials which is against the school’s rules and regulations.
Meanwhile, those students were apprehended and the entire examination was canceled.
This paper has gathered that per the school’s Code of ethics and discipline states that “When a student engages or is suspected for any examination malpractices, the prescribed punishment is for the school to cancel that particular examination and reset the whole questions for that exam for the entire school to rewrite.”
By virtue of the Code of ethics and discipline, Parents of the suspended students believed that the Acting Principal acted too harsh by suspending the students after the cancellation of the entire examination.
According to them, punishment for the students must end at the cancelation of the examination, since all the students involved were first year students, and that was their first-time offense.
But all these having been carried out effectively however, the Acting Principal of the school, Mrs. Ellen Opoku Boamah, further suspended all the 50 student nurses who were suspected to have also received some of the questions for two good semesters.
The 50 student nurses must stay home for one whole year as an extra punishment for the offense which they had already been punished for.
The parents are however of the view that the Acting Principal of the school had acted against the content of the students’ handbook, and described her action as “illegal and unfair.”
According to them all attempts to get the Acting Principal to reconsider her decisions proved futile.
They have also not received any response from the Ministry of Health and the Nurses and Midwifery Council regarding the development.
Meanwhile, it has been established that the Acting Principal, Mrs. Opoku Boamah, has also boycotted any meetings scheduled with her by the parents and the Midwifery Council to find a better solution to the problem.
Further findings of this newspaper have disclosed that, the Acting Principal of the school, Mrs. Ellen Opoku Boamah, is one person who takes authoritative and autonomous decisions and does not listen to anybody whenever there is any issue, since she assumed office.
Mrs. Boamah, the Acting Principal of the school, is therefore described as one who has no respect for authority hence her ability to boycott meetings scheduled with her by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
Meanwhile, all efforts made by this paper, The New Crusading GUIDE, to get the headquarters and the authorities of the S.D.A. Church to get their side of the story, has proven futile, since none of the concerned authorities contacted picked their calls.
