Private Nursing Schools Cheated, Says Deputy Health Minister

PETALING JAYA, July 20 (Bernama) -- Many privately run nursing schools lied about their teaching strength, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad revealed Thursday.
He said the ministry discovered that these institutions had cheated their way through in obtaining accreditation from the Malaysian Nursing Board (LJM).
"They used the names of retired government nursing tutors when applying for accreditation from the nursing board because they do not have enough qualified tutors.
"The sad thing about this is many of the retired government tutors did not know that their names have been used by these private institutions," he said.
He was speaking to reporters after witnessing the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Health Ministry and Vast Option Sdn Bhd here.
Private nursing schools are required to fulfil the 20 students per one tutor ratio before their certificates can be recognised by LJM. However, most of these institutions are unable to meet the requirement.
"The fact is they don't have enough tutors. The tutor-students ratio in most of these colleges are 1:40. So how can they meet the professional standard required of them?" he said.
He said some 5,000 nurses graduated with diploma qualification from various government and private nursing colleges in Malaysia annually.