Gushegu Midwifery Training School principal recalls pregnant student
Gushegu Midwifery Training School in the Northern Region has recalled a final-year student of the school who was prevented from writing an examination for being pregnant.
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The Principal of the school, Madam Winifred Wuntugu, told the Daily Graphic that the decision to recall the student was taken at a management meeting yesterday afternoon.
The student, Cecilia Awuni, was found to have contravened the school’s rules and regulations by getting pregnant and the school authorities applied the sanctions by preventing her from writing the examination.
Her case generated debate on the media landscape, with human rights activities describing the action of the authorities as an abuse of the rights of the student.
Directive
In an earlier interview, the Gushegu District Director of Health Services, Alhaji A.B. Yakubu, had directed the Principal of the school to allow the pregnant final-year student to write the supplementary paper she was prevented from writing last Tuesday.
Alhaji Yakubu, who spoke to the Daily Graphic, said the decision was unconvincing.
He said he had also asked the school authorities to ensure that Cecilia was in the right frame of mind before she was made to write the examination, since information reaching him indicated that she had been traumatised by the action of the school.
He stated that when he heard about the matter, he quickly summoned the principal of the school to his office to find out the rationale behind that decision.
Rules and regulations
Alhaji Yakubu said during the meeting with the principal, she told him that the victim was prevented from taking part in the examination because she had gone contrary to the rules and regulations of the school by getting pregnant while on training.
He said Cecilia was prevented from writing the school's end-of-semester examination and not the final licensing examination, as was reported in the media.
He said the policy not to allow pregnant women to write the internal examination of the school was against the fundamental human rights of the victim, as enshrined in the Constitution, and, consequently, directed the school to reverse that decision.
"Based on this, I have directed that the school should allow the victim to write the supplementary paper she was prevented from writing," he said.
Principal reacts
The Principal of the school, Madam Winifred Wuntugu, for her part, told the Daily Graphic that it was part of the general rules and regulations of the school that students should not get pregnant during their training at the school.
She said the directive was stated in the admission handbook of the school.
She said the victim was not walked out of the examinations hall, as was reported in the media, but that she was found to be pregnant during a body search on the students before the start of the examination to prevent them from entering the hall with "foreign materials".
She explained further that the victim was not the first student to be affected by the rules and regulations of the school, adding that the action against her was to instil discipline in the students.
Madam Wuntugu said the decision not to allow students to get pregnant during their training stemmed from the intense nature of their training as midwives.
She said the training involved intensive clinicals in health facilities in rural communities and academic work in the school, hence that decision.
“You can imagine the pressure that would be brought to bear on a pregnant student during clinicals when she has to travel on bad roads to remote communities and help deliver safely another pregnant woman," the principal indicated.
Meanwhile, a human rights lawyer, Mr Francis Xavier Sosu, has, in an interview on an Accra radio, threatened to go to the human rights court on the matter to seek for redress.
The Registrar of the Nurses and Midwifery Council, Mr Felix Nyante, said the council would ensure that the school allowed the victim to write the examination and described the action by the school as an infringement on the rights of the victim.
He stated that there was nowhere in the Midwifery Council rules and regulations that prevented pregnant women from writing examinations.
