UNMEB defends school that locked medical trainees out of exams

The Uganda Nurses and Midwives Examination Board (UNMEB) has defended the management of St Francis School of Health Sciences, Namataba, Mukono District, for blocking some medical trainees from sitting the June Semester examinations.

Over 23  nurses and midwife trainees at the school missed their June semester examinations, after the school management failed to register them with UNMEB as candidates.

On June 20, the affected students stormed Namataba Police station seeking a solution for their plight but police asked them to take their concerns to courts of law.

Precious Mwesigwa, one of the affected students, said that they were asked by the administration to formally write requesting a refund of the fees they paid, which they did but instead were chased away by the school's finance department.

Another student, Prillah Karungi, appealed to the Ministry of Education and the Uganda National Association of Student Nurses and Midwives leadership to intervene in their matter.

She said that the administration offered them timetables for internal examinations but later backtracked.

However, the principal examinations officer at UNMEB,  Juliet Twesigye, said the affected students had not completed the curriculum as required.

“Those (students) were their first batch on diploma, and they had not completed their curriculum. They had to study for 17 to 22 weeks of six months but they had taken only four months which is not allowed under the UNMEB regulations," she said.

She said students started their courses in March and would sit their exams in December.

“Our team has since visited the school and talked to both the administration and students so that they continue with their curriculum up to December.”

According to Geoffrey Kanima, the rector at the school,  the students had been misled to stage a demonstration against the school decision.

“The students were advised to do internal examinations as they prepare for UNMEB exams, but they insisted they wanted to sit the latter this month. We are not going to chase them away despite giving a bad image to the institution," he said.

The UNMEB principal examinations officer however noted that besides the incident at the institute, exams are going on smoothly at other centers.

The National Council for Higher Education (NCHE)  approved seven courses at St. Francis School of Health Sciences in Namataba, Mukono district.

The courses include a Diploma in Biomedical Engineering, Diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology, Diploma in Pharmacy, Diploma in Clinical Medicine and Community Health, Diploma in Midwifery, Diploma in Nursing Direct, Diploma in Nursing Extension, and Diploma in midwifery extension. In a letter written by the Deputy Executive Director NCHE, Rev. Canon. Dr. Alex M. Kagume informed the institution that they had accredited their programs.

“I am pleased to inform you that after due consideration, Council at its 64th meeting of 14 March 2022 under MIN 446/64/2022 accredited the programs, "he wrote.

The institution was then advised to tell its staff to implement the programmes according to the regulations of the NCHE. “Offices of the NCHE shall review the implementation during their periodic administrative and monitoring visits to your institution.”

This year, 53,169 nurses and midwife trainees registered to do the exams.

Ms. Helen Kataratambi, UNMEB executive secretary, said a total of 2005 stakeholders have already been assigned to visit the exam centers in the country majorly to supervise the progress of the ongoing national examinations before next week when practical papers start.

UNMEB is a semi-autonomous government body established in December 2005 by the Ministry of Education and Sports with a cardinal objective of streamlining, regulating, and coordinating examinations and awards for Nurses and Midwives in Uganda. The board usually conducts two series of annual exams in June and December. But due to Covid-19 pandemic disruptions, the 2021 December exams were conducted in February this year.