Govt. Scraps Single-Sitting O-Level Requirement In Nurse Enrolment

The government has removed the requirement that aspiring nurses must have completed one sitting of Ordinary Level exams to enrol in nurse training at public health facilities.

Speaking in the National Assembly during Wednesday’s question-and-answer session, Health and Child Welfare Minister Douglas Mombeshora said that enrolment is no longer based on the number of O-Level sittings, as the government recognised that it does not reflect a student’s academic ability.

In the past, Mombeshora explained, students were required to have five O-Level passes from a single sitting to qualify for nurse training.

However, this is no longer the case, as the government acknowledged that the rule was unnecessary and irregular. Said Mombeshora:

“We removed the requirement that we had said that we want only O-Levels and a student should have sat once.

“We discovered that some of the children did not fail, but some of their parents could not afford the registration of five or more subjects at once.

“In those places, we are paving the way for those who have more than one sitting to be enrolled.”

Related:

More Cancer Specialists, More Treatment Centres Coming, Says Health Minister Zimbabwe Nurse Educators Warn Of Health Sector Crisis Over Stalled Allowances