By Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
Nursing students at the Excelsior Education Centre on Mountain View Avenue in Kingston lament their lack of stipends outside the Ministry of Health's King Street offices, downtown Kingston, yesterday. - Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer
THE MINISTRY of Health yesterday promised to pay nursing students at Excelsior Education Centre (EXED) their overdue stipends by the end of the week, provided that the centre submits the costings by today.
Shermaine Robotham-Whyte, communications manager at the Ministry of Health, confirmed this yesterday, stating that the money would be turned over to the school to disburse to students and that the Ministry would try to ensure that students get their stipends every month up to the end of the school year.
The Ministry's decision followed a protest by over 90 nursing students, who gathered outside the Ministry's King Street headquarters, downtown Kingston, around 11:00 a.m. yesterday to demand answers.
Students complained about having to learn in uncomfortable classrooms which were often invaded by rats and questioned why they were not being paid stipends when they were due. Stipends range from $5,000 plus to just over $11,000 per month, depending on a student's year of study.
They said that letters to Minister of Health John Junor, Permanent Secretary Grace Allen-Young and the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) had gone unanswered so they felt they had to take it to the doorsteps of the Ministry.
"Why? Why are they treating us like we are inferior when the (Excelsior nursing) system has been there for 29 years and we have good results?" one student questioned.
Some students also later suggested to The Gleaner by telephone that the Ministry of Health should conduct an audit into how stipends are disbursed at the centre.
Mrs. Robotham-Whyte said that records showed that the Ministry was paying the money over to Excelsior to pay the stipends, but students said that they received only a part of their stipends in February and March.
Dahlia Repole, principal of Excelsior Community College, was reluctant to comment on the stipends, stating that it was an internal matter which was being discussed with the Ministry of Health and that she would not comment until students met with their heads of department and until she heard the outcome of a meeting held yesterday between students and Lloyd Maxwell, the Ministry's acting human resources management director.
Government had decided to stop stipend payments to students as of September 2002, but problems started after an error promising stipends was sent out to nursing students at the Kingston School of Nursing last September. First-year students complained, forcing the Health Ministry to pay them stipends for another year.
