One evening in May 2017, I received a call that got my blood boiling and kept my mouth dripping with words I cannot reproduce here. In journalism school, we were taught to detach emotions from our work, but how can you not be outraged when educated humans inflict so much pain and injustice on others?
The caller was the husband whose wife, Cecelia Awuni, had been driven out of the examination hall of the Gushegu Nursing and Midwifery Training College.
Cecelia Awuni was in her final year. She was writing her final examination of six papers. She had written four papers and was in the examination hall to write the fifth paper. After that, she would write the final paper the following day and leave the school. But that was not to happen.
In the middle of the paper, the principal of the college walked in and sacked her from the examination hall.
Her only crime?
She was pregnant.
For someone who had had about 24 hours to complete the school, this sacking meant that she would not be admitted into the school until she had given birth and returned the following year to join the next batch of final year students.
Yes, that was the rule in nursing and midwifery training schools across Ghana. And that rule was being enforced by principals of those schools, who were mostly women. The principal who sacked Cecelia from the exam hall was a woman.
The following morning, I didn’t report to the newsroom. I went straight to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), where the registrar and public relations Officer of the Council (both men) confirmed my story before engaging me in a debate.
The registrar defended the action of the principal. It was a rule that had to be obeyed, he said.
It didn’t make sense, I insisted. And he disagreed.
From one lame justification to another, the registrar laboured unintelligibly in a vain attempt to rationalise the barbarity. He claimed the pregnancy interfered with the nursing students’ training.
I pointed out to him that pregnant women worked and attended school at the university, so it didn’t make sense to single out nursing students for that discrimination and injustice.
He then claimed nursing training was peculiar, because they were required to undertake clinicals in hospitals and so on.
I forgot to point out to him that in those hospitals, pregnant nurses were not exempt from more demanding tasks than the nursing students on practical attachments. But I pointed out to him that Cecilia Awuni had only one day to complete school, so how was the pregnancy going to affect her education, even if we were to go by the excuse?
Then, he said nursing trainees needed to show good examples. As midwives, they would be helping women undertake family planning, and they should be seen to be implementing what they would go out to teach others.
“Are you saying female nursing students must not have sex?” I asked him.
“No, that’s not what I mean.”
“And is there a foolproof family planning method?” I asked.
He said there was none.
At the end of the day, I succeeded in getting what I wanted from them—an interview with them. The registrar made the PRO speak to me. He confirmed the incident and the rule.
But the story was not that of only Cecelia Awuni (She is not related to me).
Another nursing student in the Jirapa Nursing Training College, Sarah Danyi, had been compelled to induce an early birth after she got pregnant and was forced to withdraw. She delivered just in time before the examination.
When she returned to school to join her year group for the final examination, the principal, a woman, denied her the chance. That meant she had to wait for another year to write. Some students who suffered this fate were traumatised and did not return to the school.
It took the intervention of a medical doctor, who threatened to sue the principal, to get Sarah to write her examination.
When I aired my report on Joy FM, the Super Morning Show made it the agenda the following morning.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council distanced itself from the PRO’s interview, though I knew he made no mistake in his interview with me. He had articulated the council’s position.
Within 72 hours of my story, the Ministry of Health released a statement abolishing the rule that required female nursing students to halt their education when they got pregnant.
Cecelia Awuni was called to write her two papers. She excelled. And I’m here to announce the progress of the two main characters of my story.
Sarah now has two children. She has gone on to study for a degree in nursing. And she’s serving her nation in the Wa West District of the Upper West Region.
Cecelia delivered her child after school. She’s now eight, the first of Cecilia’s three children.
Her nursing career has not stalled. She has served the nation’s health service in Tolon and now works at the Nyankpala Health Centre in the Northern Region.
But that’s not all.
After completing the Gushegu Nursing and Midwifery Training College with a diploma, Cecelia did her national service in 2018.
She proceeded to obtain a bachelor’s degree. And In 2022, she applied and was admitted to the University of Ghana to study for an Mphil in Midwifery at the University of Ghana. She graduated successfully in July this year.
Cecelia Awuni’s story is just one example of what women can achieve when society removes the barriers that compound nature’s weight on them.
Her personal journey and the abolishing of the senseless rule that robbed female nursing students of their fundamental rights remain one of the proudest moments of my journalism career. But much of the credit should go to Cecelia and her husband, who were prepared to take on the system.
Many of the absurdities people endure result from the reluctance to fight. For fear of victimisation, they suffer silently and pass their ordeal on to other generations.
Cecelia fought for her pregnancy and won. Her victory has liberated generations of nursing and midwifery students who would still have been suffering if she had decided to endure this in silence.