LOCAL FIRST PUSH! Nursing schools to take 75% recruits from home districts

Sikhumbuzo Moyo

ZIMBABWE has tightened the screws on the nursing recruitment system by ordering that at least 75 percent of trainee nurses admitted at any training school must come from the district or province where that school is located.

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.