Winneba(C/R),Oct.21, GNA - The Government has released funds for expansion of facilities at the Winneba Community Health Nursing Training School to increase the intake of students.

Mrs. Charlotte Enninful, Principal of the School, who disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Winneba, however, did not disclose the amount involved.

She said the expansion included the construction of six additional classroom blocks and two semi-detached staff bungalows. The Principal said work on the bungalows estimated at about 500 million cedis has begun.

She said despite their limited resources, the school authorities had managed to increase its intake annually to ensure more students were admitted but "the school would not be able to satisfy everybody." Mrs Enninful said more than 3,000 students applied for admission this year and 600 were short-listed for interview out of which 200 were admitted, an improvement over last year's admission.

The Principal said out of the 200 students, 30 of them are undertaking Diploma course in Community Health Nursing which begun this year, and the rest undertaking the normal certificate course. She explained that students who failed in their final examination conducted by the Nurses and Midwives Council had three chances to better their results, after which unsuccessful students would not be allowed to practice nursing.

Mrs Enninful said to ensure best students were selected, the authorities conducted intensive interviews and therefore, appealed to parents whose children failed the interview to stop "the frequent visit to her office for consideration."

She said the Government was committed to expand facilities at the existing Nurses Training Schools and construction of new facilities nationwide to train more nurses.

Mrs Enninful said the Government had given approval for the establishment of another Community Health Nursing Training School in the Central Region, and the Regional Health Directorate would determine its location.

The Principal said arrangements had been made for the students to undertake practical lessons at the Agona Swedru Government and Apam Catholic hospitals alongside Winneba Government Hospital. 21 Oct.05