At least 23 medical trainees at St Francis School of Health Science Tuesday protested after missing their final Uganda Nurses and Midwives Examination Board (UNMEB) examinations.
Surprised by the incident, the nursing and midwife trainees claim that they were never registered by the institution’s management for unknown reasons.
“The school management convinced us to join the institute on half bursary claiming that they had partnered with Mulago School of Nursing and Midwifery where we had applied for a diploma course but failed to join because of failure to raise the required tuition of Shs3million,” the students added.
According to the students, they didn’t probe the partnership due to the half bursary offer until last Friday when they missed UNMEB cards and exam briefing.
“That’s when we realized that the institute does not qualify to offer diplomas in Nursing and Midwifery,” they told this publication on Tuesday.
“The school management failed to directly pass over the information to parents but instead directed students to inform them,” one of the affected students, Prillah Karungi said as she appealed for government intervention.
On Monday, the institute deployed police to prevent demonstrations by aggrieved students around campus as exams commenced.
Another affected student, Mary Anna Yusuf, is now asking the institution to compensate them to join another nursing and midwifery institution.
The protesting students joined the health-workers training facility on February 7, 2022 to study for at least 18 months for extensive the students and about three years for direct learners.
But according to a document sent by the interim school rector, Geoffrey Kanima, UNMEB permitted St. Francis, Namataba to start admitting students for diplomas in nursing and midwifery mid-April 2022.
Asked to comment on the students’ concerns, Mr Kanima declined saying he would only do so in the presence of the entire school management.”
UNMEB is a semi-autonomous government body established in December 2005 by the Ministry of Education and Sports to streamline, regulate and also coordinate examinations and awards for nurses and midwives at both certificate and diploma levels in Uganda.
