The Malakiya College of Health and Social Sciences, Bauchi, has graduated 573 students in its four years of existence, the proprietor of the college, Alhaji Aminu Ahmed-Danmalik, disclosed this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Bauchi.
He disclosed that one of the graduates, Aisha Umar, who set a new national record in Health Information Management received the school’s Certificate of Excellence, as the graduates were awarded Diploma certificates in Community Health Extension Workers (CHEW), Junior Community Health Extension Workers (JCHEW), Medical Laboratory Technician (MLT), X-Ray Technician and Dental Surgery Technician.
In addition, others received the National Diploma Dental Therapy, Higher National Diploma Dental Therapy, Health Information Management, Environmental Health Technician, Environmental Health Assistant, Diploma in Health Education and Promotion as well as Diploma in Dietetics and Nutrition, he said.
Ahmed-Danmaliki disclosed that the college was established in 2015, under a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) initiative with government, following a shortage of health personnel in the state, saying “the school is now four years old and currently has a students population of 3,000 with 87 staffers.
“The government urged private entrepreneurs to establish more training colleges for doctors and other health care providers because it cannot meet the needed manpower even in the next 50 years.
“The PPP arrangement we signed with the government has, however, collapsed because the present administration decided to shy away from its responsibilities,” he stressed.
He said: “We currently have 17 accredited health courses in the school and have just obtained accreditation for six additional courses for National Diploma. Most of our students are from the rural areas, so after graduation they will be redeployed back to their respective localities to provide services to the rural communities.”
Ahmed-Danmaliki emphasized that “the state is in dire need of more trained health workers for effective health care service delivery, in view of the ever increasing population.
“We learnt that the current government is reconsidering to continue with the PPP, as against its earlier decision to discontinue with the programme”, Danmaliki said, adding, ”about 2,000 government-sponsored students are currently stranded, but the school has decided to continue offering them services, as we cannot afford to throw them back into the streets.
“We have also gone out to recruit students from across the country since the government failed to sponsor her students since the partnership stopped in 2019”, the proprietor said. (NAN).
