Nursing admissions reaching nowhere; Health Minister to hold discussion with managements tomorrow

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Health Minister Veena George will be discussing with the management as the steps for nursing admission have reached nowhere. The discussion will be held tomorrow at 11 am in the Minister's office in Secretariat Annex 2. Representatives of the Nursing College Management Association and heads of stand-alone colleges have been invited. The discussion held by the Principal Secretary of the Health Department with the management on the 2nd of this month had ended without a decision.

The nursing admission process for which thousands of students are waiting is dragging on even a week after the Plus Two results. Although applications for merit seats were invited through LBS, the managements have warned that they may have to reconsider giving away 50 percent seats in their colleges to the government.

There is still no agreement on the renewal of affiliation of colleges or what kind of management seat admission is required. Even though the problems got complicated months ago, there was no significant intervention from the government at that stage.

It has been clarified that the uniform allotment of management seats by the association will be stopped after the government announced that it cannot be exempted from GST. Earlier candidates could pay a fee of Rs 1000 and apply to 10 colleges but now they have to pay a separate fee for each college. This will put the children in dire straits if there is no solution in tomorrow's talks.