Stakeholders in the Ministry of Higher Education (Minesup), for two days, have been meeting with those of the Ministry of Public Health (Minsante) to seek solutions to a problem that has created a rift between both Ministries.
The two Ministries have been at loggerheads regarding the training of public health officials, particularly nurses, with Minsante claiming the sole prerogative of training health workers for state hospitals (state-registered nurses).
However, Minsante is being accused of violating a law that regulates the training of these health officials.
Officials from both ministries, including the Vice Chancellor of State universities and proprietors of private institutes met in Yaounde on June 5 and 6, 2024, to discuss a way out of the misunderstanding, which is adversely affecting medical students trained by both Ministries.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Dr Nick Ngwanyam, CEO of St Louis University Institute, explained that the problem has prevented students trained by Minsante from accessing education at higher institutions under the Ministry of Higher Education.
“The association under the Ministry of Health that is supposed to register the graduates from the Ministry of Higher Education refuses to do so and they do so illegally. And besides, the Ministry of Health says that students who are training in the institutions under the Ministry of Higher Education should not be accepted into public hospitals… that they should not be admitted there for practical work, which we find very unhealthy,” Dr Ngwanyam explained.
“We also noticed that the Ministry of Health that is formenting all these problems has some issues as well. When you look at the law that allows the Ministry of health to train its personnel, that law written sometime in 1980, states clearly that a nurse who is supposed to be trained by the Ministry of health has to come in with a Probatoire or O/levels, not with a Bac. And you’ll notice that recently the Ministry actually changed that illegally and is training with Bac,” he added.
The meeting in Yaounde aimed at addressing these issues is expected to yield positive fruits.
Provisional resolutions from the conclave, a copy of which MMI obtained, reveal that both Ministries will begin running a single entrance exam for health cycles next academic year.
Also, the Ministry of Higher Education will start recognizing Bac-level IDE graduates from the Ministry of Public Health, enabling them to obtain a professional license and further their education right up to the doctorate degree level.
The BTS certificate awarded by the Ministry of Health will also be changed into a License (Licence en Soins de Sante).
These resolutions, among others, are expected to resolve the longstanding rift between Minsante and Minesup in the training of health personnel.
