Mr James Awuni, husband of a midwifery student who was sacked from the Gushegu Midwifery Training School in Ghana's Northern Region for being pregnant, has said the dismissal was unfair and discriminatory and pleaded with the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection to intervene.

On Wednesday, 10 May, the Principal at the Training School prevented Cecilia Awuni from continuing with her examination because she was four months pregnant.

According to Mr Awumi, the Principal, Ms Rukaya Alhassan, refused to allow his wife to write the exams despite numerous pleas by him on the phone to that effect and irrespective of assurances by the student that she was fit for the exams.

He told Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Thursday, 11 May that his wife has been left traumatised after her sacking from school on the grounds of being pregnant.

According to him, his wife wrote three of six papers but was prevented from going ahead with the fourth by the Principal.

“The school may think my wife is not fit to write the exams because she’s pregnant but the question is: is she sick as a result of the pregnancy? [That] … is absolutely not the case. And right now as I’m talking with you, the decision they have taken to bar her from writing the exams is rather making her sick than the actual pregnancy,” Mr Awuni said.

“It’s a problem that we should all be concerned about and I think that this is not really accurate to do on the part of the school. There wasn’t any form of counselling and I think the whole family [is traumatised]. Yesterday her mother was crying throughout and I can say that my wife cannot eat, I can’t also eat

According to him, his wife’s academic performance had been progressive despite her pregnancy and so saw no reason in her sacking by the Principal.

“My wife’s performance has been going on and on and on and I think the school has the records on the mid-semester exams she wrote last month. Has her performance come down? She does better and I assured her that I would give her all the support she needs. Anything that I can do humanly possible to make her comfortable to complete the course, I will do. And so her performance hasn’t come down, she has never been admitted at the hospital because she is sick,” he added.

Meanwhile, Nana Agyeman, Head of the Public Relations Unit of the Ghana Nursing and Midwifery Council, told host Kojo Yankson that the decision was in the best interest of the student. “I don’t think her rights have been violated”, he said, even though he conceded “… There is no law in Ghana that bars pregnant students from writing exams. We offer advice and we advised her not to write the exams.”