Nursing exam postponed as final year students protest over non-enrollment in Delta

Over 300 angry final-year students of the three schools of Nursing and the State University, Abraka in Delta State on Tuesday protested in Asaba for several hours over the failure of the school authorities to enrol them for the National Nursing and Midwifery Council Examinations.

The protesters drawn from the Schools in Warri, Eku and Agbor were expected to write their examination yesterday at the CBT Center, Delta State Library Board along Maryam Babangida way in Asaba only to be informed late that they were not registered for the examination after paying for it.

It was alleged that the state Director, Nursing Services, Mrs Gloria Igumbor, who went to pacify the students were held hostage at the venue of the Examination.

Meanwhile, the examination has been put on hold pending when all the contending issues are sorted out.

The Delta State Commissioner for Health, Dr Mordi Ononye announced this when he addressed the students at the examination venue.

He revealed that the decision was reached after the intervention of the Federal Minister of Health, Registrar and Deputy Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria and the Delta State Ministry of Health.

“The issue is that the Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council is out of the country presently and I am in touch with him.

“By next week every issue concerning the indexing and enrollment would be fully resolved and a new date will be given for Delta State which will obviously be in the next couple of days”.

The Commissioner said the state Governor has directed him to personally intervene in the matter and so he will be going to Abuja next week to meet with the Registrar when he returns from his trip outside the shores of the country with a view to resolving the issue.

Explaining the processes that led to the writing of the final examination, Dr Ononye said that “after six months into the programme, the students would write the PTS Examination and if successful they are indexed and given an index number by the Indexing Officer who is a Staff of the Schools and appointed by the Nursing Council.

According to the Commissioner, the evidence available to the Ministry of Health indicated that the Indexing fees were paid to the Nursing and Midwifery Council, but for reasons yet to be determined, not all of the students were given index numbers, without which they cannot be enrolled for the examination.

He apologised to the students for the discomfort and inconveniences the change of the examination date has caused them and charged the students to conduct themselves properly and not to take laws into their hands as a new date will be communicated to them.

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