Nursing students protest exam results, poor sanitation
Arua nursing school students stage demonstration last week. PHOTO by Clement Aluma
What you need to know:
Questionable state. The students say their exams were marked by non-teaching staff.
ARUA. Police last Friday deployed heavily at the main gate of Arua School of Comprehensive Nursing and Midwifery to block students from demonstrating in Arua town.
The students planned to demonstrate against a wide range of issues they said the school administration had failed to address.
They cited the high failure rate they want investigated and the poor sanitation at the institute. About 10 of their colleagues face dismissal while 50 others are set to re-do their exams.
The guild president of the institute, Mr Caesar Miria, said they are not satisfied with the way examinations were marked and they could, therefore, not accept the results.
“We are not satisfied with last semester’s results because the circumstances under which the papers were marked were not clear. We heard that they were marked by non-teaching staff and the stamp on them is of last year,” said Mr Miria.
More issues
Another student who declined to be named for fear of victimisation said: “The Principal, Ms Anseta Dramadri, always abuses our parents when they come to plead about tuition problems.
“The sanitation at the school is poor, and there is a lot of corruption going on in the administration.”
The district police commander Mr Nathan Musinguzi, said: “The demonstration is uncalled for because their concerns are very clear. I’m going to present them before the security committee. I have also dispatched CIDs here to begin investigating these allegations.”
The principal was not available at the time of the planned demonstration but her deputy, Mr Nixon Draniva, said the students’ concerns were unfounded.
“These exams were marked by the same people who set them. The examinations passed through all the stages and were approved and endorsed by the examinations committee.
These students know what happens when one fails an exam,” Mr Draniva said.
Way forward
It has emerged that the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education and Sports, Dr Rose Nassali, in a letter dated July 25, 2015, asked the Principal to give an explanation about the allegations within three days.
