The directive
comes months after the decentralisation of recruitment and follows worrying
reports that some desperate applicants were paying up to US$1 000 to secure a
place. Authorities say the new quota is meant to boost local representation,
cut out external manipulation and crush corruption that had crept into the
system.
Deputy Minister
of Health and Child Care Sleiman Kwidini revealed the new rules during a
question and answer session in Parliament on Tuesday. This came after
Dangamvura legislator Prosper Mutseyami raised concerns that some regions had
gone for entire intakes without a single local candidate being selected.
“As far as the
Ministry is concerned, we have decentralised the nurse training. Each region
has more than two schools of nursing training. After that, we have come up with
a quota system where we say 75 percent of the students recruited from those
areas are from the locals,” said Deputy Minister Kwidini.
The competition
for places remains fierce across the country. More than 100 000 aspiring nurses
apply for training each year, yet the entire system can only take about 1 200
trainees annually. The numbers are brutal. Sally Mugabe and Parirenyatwa
Group of
Hospitals alone receive between 5 000 and 8 000 applications per intake season,
yet together they can enrol only 80 students per intake. They conduct two
intakes a year.
In Bulawayo,
institutions like Mpilo Central Hospital, United Bulawayo Hospitals and
Ingutsheni Psychiatric Hospital can take only about 40 students per year.
The Ministry
hopes the quota system will spread opportunities more evenly and ensure that
communities benefit directly from the health workers they produce. The move is
also expected to restore confidence in the application process and shut the
door on corrupt middlemen who had turned nursing dreams into a cash cow.
With the stakes
high and competition fierce, the new rule could be the lifeline many rural and
provincial hopefuls have been waiting for. B Metro
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