Lack of infrastructure impedes academic progress at Jirapa Nursing Training College.

The Jirapa nursing training college is the only training college in the Upper West Region that train Registered General Nurses and as such it’s believed that it is supposed to be supplying nurses to the over seven major hospitals in the region. Not taking into consideration the chips, compounds and numerous other health centers dotted throughout the region.

This notwithstanding, little attention has been given to the infrastructural needs of this school, this therefore lead to a low intake of students and also impedes smooth academic progress. With a small population of about three hundred (300), students are forced to attend classes in the assembly hall where they only have the opportunity of sitting on plastic chairs with no tables to write on.

During mid-semester exams, students are forced to write in turns, because of the few tables available. When the first year class is writing, the second and third year students will have to vacate their classes and tables. Hence the whole school comes to a standstill. Same happens during the end of semester exams. The different classes have to take turns to write their papers,

The least talk of accommodation for students the better, the few available hostels are just enough to accommodate the ladies on campus. The male students have to stay in rented accommodations outside campus; most of which are located miles away from campus.

These male students therefore have to walk long distances to attend classes. One sad thing about these rented accommodations is that they all lack sources notably water. These students are therefore forced to go to public boreholes where they are made to join long queues in order to fetch water. Those who cannot stand the ordeal of joining long queues are forced to walk or ride bicycles all the way to campus to fetch water. This makes these students tired hence unable to do long hours of studies in the night.

The Ministry of Health and the Ghana Education Service will therefore need to give immediate attention to the infrastructural needs of this school to help save students from the ordeals they go through both during classes and after classes and to also enable more students to be admitted. So that more nurses can be trained to serve the region.