Education
RVHA Wades Into UK Medical Students’ Plight
Rivers State House of Assembly has directed Rivers State
Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA), to ensure that the embattled Rivers
foreign medical students in UK realise their ambition of becoming medical
doctors.
The resolution to this effect followed petition by the
United Kingdom foreign medical students 2008 batch and the subsequent
appearance of the executive Director of RSSDA, Mr. Noble Pepple at the floor of
the Assembly at Wednesday’s Plenary session.
Ruling on the resolution, the Speaker Rt. Hon. Otelemaba
Amachree, told the RSSDA to consider the plight of the students who left
Nigeria to study medicine but were enrolled to read pre-medical courses.
Hon. Amachree said the RSSDA should assist the affected
students secure another admission for them to study medicine while they
complete the sponsorship of the programme.
The House unanimously rejected the alternative campus of the
Newcastle University in Malaysia for lack of accreditation as the UK main
campus could not admit the Rivers students for non possession of A-level
qualification to study medicine coupled with new government regulation that
reserved seven per cent admission to all foreign students.
Responding to the allegations, Mr. Pepple said the RSSDA
oversea scholarship programme began in 2008 with minor mistakes which have been
corrected in subsequent years, stressing that “we do not send anybody to the
school without ascertaining accreditation and available spaces.
Debating on the matter, Hon. Chidi Lloyd suggested that the
problem can only be resolved now by allowing the affected students to return
home while proper arrangement for their admission is made rather than allow
them stay in London to constitute immigration problem.
Hons Golden Chioma, Anderson Miller, Legborsi Nwidadah,
Kelechi Nwogu, Michael Okey-Chinda,
Onari Brown and Ibelema Okpokiri, urged the RSSDA not to abandon the students
but to help secure admission for them to complete their studies and achieve
their life ambition of becoming medical doctors.
They argued that Mrs Blessing Tasie who is the consultant to
RSSDA on the project failied to explain the policy direction in education in
the United Kingdom before taking the students away.
The lawmakers agreed that since the mistakes were made by
the RSSDA, they should not abandon the students but ensure they are assisted to
study medicine that they have been advertised with. Some of the parents were
equally blamed for withdrawing their children from Nigerian universities to be
part of the programme and the lawmakers advised RSSDA to equally consider good
Universities in Nigeria and other places for their students considering the
huge financial outlay involved in the scheme.
It would be recalled that some Rivers Medical students in
United Kingdom petitioned to the state House of Assembly complaining that
rather than study medicine, the RSSDA enrolled them for pre-medical courses
like pharmacology, physiology and Bio-medical.
They equally alleged that the RSSDA has stopped remitting
their up keep allowance and wants them
to return without studying Medicine which was the arrangement before leaving
Nigeria.
The River State Commissioner for Education, Dr Peters Nwagor has called on media practitioners in Rivers State to deploy their various communication platforms toward promoting government programmes and policies aimed at achieving sustainable development in the education sector. Dr. Nwagor made the appeal when members of the Etche Ethnic Practicing Journalists (EEPJ) paid him a courtesy visit in Office in Port Harcourt. The Commissioner emphasized the strategic role of the media in shaping public perception, promoting government initiatives, and supporting policies capable of improving the quality of education and human capital development in the state. According to him, constructive media engagement remains essential in creating public awareness on educational reforms, students’ welfare, infrastructural improvements, and other interventions being implemented by the state government. Speaking on the recent appro
