Narh-Bita College calls for govt support
The Narh-Bita College in Tema has called for government support in grants, equipment, tax reliefs and other forms of assistance as 163 students graduated from the school, while 427 others matriculated for the 2013-14 academic year.
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The Vice-President of the college, Rev. Dr Aaron Ami-Narh, said science-based educational institutions involved capital intensive investments, and insisted that private institutions in this sector would always require state support in their bid to contribute to national development.
“We wish to appeal to the government to give incentives to private tertiary institutions which offer science-related programmes, since running such professional courses require heavy capital investment.
“Incentives could be in the form of grants, equipment or learning aids,” Rev. Dr Ami-Narh said.
The Narh-Bita College runs a school of nursing, school of laboratory technology and school of physician assistantship. It also produces professionals for the health sector.
At the 10th matriculation and fifth graduation ceremony of the school, Rev. Dr Ami-Narh said the college had gone far with accreditation processes to run degree programmes in general nursing and laboratory technology.
He said the college – accredited by the National Accreditation Board and affiliated to the University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology – was also collaborating with MAHSA University in Malaysia to start a master’s degree in public health and health administration.
He indicated that the college would introduce the study of sign language in its academic curricular to enable graduates of the school to deal with the medical needs of the deaf and dumb satisfactorily.
The Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, Mr P.V. Obeng, who was the guest of honour, said the government acknowledged health education as an essential strategy for health promotion, and that the government considered that as “an effective mechanism for achieving positive health outcomes”.
He said this “has the potential of reducing health expenditures by as much as 70 per cent, and thus lowering the burden of curative care with its associated challenges of inadequate provision of human capital for health and associated sectors” in terms of medical doctors and health paramedics, nurses, technologists in laboratories and optical workshops.
He said it was in the light of this that the government’s current health policy was aimed, among other considerations, at ensuring the participation of all relevant partners and stakeholders such as community-based organisations, civil society organisations, professional associations, health training institutions, the private sector, international agencies and aid organisations to achieve better health outcomes for the country.
While commending the Narh-Bita College – established in 2004 – and its sister body, Narh-Bita Hospital, on their contribution to solving the health needs of the country, Mr Obeng said statistics from world bodies showed that there was still the need to still improve health service.
“The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that 64 per cent of deaths in Africa are due to communicable, maternal and nutritional diseases, 27 per cent from non-communicable diseases and 7.8 per cent from injuries, most of which could be prevented through health education and appropriate investments in better nutrition, clean water supply, sanitation, immunisation and population management,” he said.
He said communicable but preventable diseases were estimated to cause 40 per cent of deaths in Ghana; malaria was a leading cause of ill-health and death in the country, with an estimated 11 million cases reported annually, representing 44.1 per cent of outpatient attendances and 5,000 deaths; that cholera is widespread with 5,600 reported cases in 2012 and a death rate of 1.5 per cent; that communicable diseases accounted for high levels of child and premature mortality, and that only 16 per cent of households had improved sanitary facilities out of which only 8.5 per cent had toilet facilities exclusively used by members, with 35 per cent of rural and 10 per cent of urban areas practising open defecation.
Dr Emmanuel Teye Adjase, Rector of the College of Health and Wellness, Kintampo, said an ongoing collaboration between the Narh-Bita College and his outfit was yielding positive results in their common goal of producing the best health professionals for Ghana in furtherance of the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) policy of the state.
The Narh-Bita College honoured Dr Adjase for his personal role in ensuring the deepening of the collaboration between the two institutions for the benefit of the country.
In all, the college admitted 135 students for registered general nursing, 60 for physician assistantship, 20 for medical laboratory technicians, 60 medical laboratory assistants, 125 for health assistant (clinical) and 27 health carers.