The Ministry of Health and Child Care is considering the possibility of removing the Ordinary Level English Language requirement for nurse training intake, reported NewZimbabwe.com.
This comes after the government recently removed the prerequisite of passing O’ Level Mathematics for nurse training qualification.
In recent years, Zimbabweans pursuing the three-year Diploma in Registered General Nurse Training needed a minimum of five “O” Level subjects.
These subjects included English Language, Mathematics, a Science subject, and two additional subjects (excluding practical ones like Fashion and Fabrics, Metal Work, Graphic Art, Art, and Woodwork). The minimum grade required was a C or better, obtained from no more than two sittings.
Speaking at the post-cabinet briefing in Harare on Tuesday, the Minister of Health and Child Care Douglas Mombeshora said:
We are still looking at other issues like is passing English with a C is important because anyone who has passed all his subjects has been taught in English and if you go to Universities outside Zimbabwe, let’s say English for Communication and not pass English as if you want to go and do a degree in English.
So we will keep on reviewing and make sure that we make accessibility to training in various disciplines affordable and accessible to all citizens of Zimbabwe.
Mombeshora added that the Mathematics requirement unfairly kept a lot of people out of the nursing profession given that the subject has a very low pass rate. He said:
Maths is not a requirement in terms of training in the medical field, I’m a medical doctor the key subject for you to go into medicine is chemistry so we have retained science subjects as a key subject to go into nursing.
We are actually leaving a lot of people who have the capacity and capabilities out of the training because of Maths, you know very much that Maths has not been a subject that is passed well.
Applicants for the latest intake, whose deadline is 21 April are required to have “a minimum of 5 O’ Level subjects with passes in English Language and a science subject and three others (excluding practical subjects which are fashion and fabrics, metal work, graphic art, and woodwork) at Grade C or better obtained at not more than two sittings with full certificates as examination result slips are not accepted.
Aspiring nurses are likely to welcome this change, considering that English Language and Mathematics are widely regarded as challenging subjects at the O’ Level.
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