That is, the more than 60,000 male and female students who graduated from these colleges might not be accepted as nurses, because their qualifications are not up to the standards. As a result, they won’t be able to pass the practical exams, one of the conditions for acceptance to the profession of nursing. This condition is imperative, given the serious work these people will be asked to do.
We have to be aware of a future disaster that will worsen the situation, as we are already facing a national and humanitarian crisis. Most of the graduates of health institutes are unemployed. We have to support them in view of the significance of the sector for which they studied. They are victims of the weak health centers that graduated them. They all obtained low grades, which would not qualify them to join sensitive establishments such as hospitals and clinics. They, themselves, would not want to cause problems for the patients either.
The Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) joined the Health Ministry long ago in giving licenses to these institutes. As the experiment was at an early stage, no one bothered to look at the quality of their input. The organizational and ethical responsibility was to be borne by both the public and the private sector.
The government slackened in the application of parameters and conditions, while the private sector entered into the experiment mainly to make financial gains, with the exception of a few institutes that were committed to the standard of quality. Now, after the stern attitude adopted by the ministry and the corporation, we have to find a solution for the problem of the graduates through their requalification.
We cannot blame the Ministry of Health for not accepting the graduates, because it cannot compromise the standard of safety.
The corporation should also be thanked for its decision to halt licenses to these institutes, giving this responsibility to the Saudi Authority for Medical Specializations. The corporation did very well by giving out this authority to the body concerned, particularly because it is usually not easy for government departments to give away any of their powers.
The 60,000 graduates are our sons and daughters. They have taken a step in the domain of nursing. Many of them paid huge amounts to join these institutes that were government-licensed. We have to review the situation. The licenses of the colleges that do not meet the standards should be withdrawn. Their owners should be fined, and the money used to requalify the graduates.
Secondly, the potential of the colleges should be checked thoroughly. This is the responsibility of the Ministry of Higher Education, the Anti-Corruption Commission, the General Auditing Bureau and the Control and Investigation Board.
This review must also cover the community colleges in universities, because their input is weak too. Half of the graduates of these community colleges could not pass the practical examination for the labor market. The conditions of the colleges require the formation of a government team to consider new mechanisms for granting licenses. Let’s learn from our mistakes in the past, when opportunities were opened for businessmen to invest in institutes that were turned into colleges overnight!
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