Harvarde College of Science, Business and Management Studies, Ogun State is in the news for bad reasons as a 300-level student of the institution reportedly took her life after the school allegedly failed to meet the accreditation requirements of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.
The management of the private tertiary institution has however refuted the reports that one of its students, simply identified as Ajoke, committed suicide after the school failed to meet the accreditation requirements.
It was gathered that the deceased student had on Monday evening, consumed insecticide and slumped on her way to her boyfriend’s house.
Meanwhile, an enforcement team of the state Ministry of Health and members of the state Nursing and Midwifery Committee on Tuesday, sealed the nursing department of the institution for operating without accreditation from the NMCN.
Reacting to the report about the deceased, the college said the news was nothing but falsehood.
The President of the college, Oluwatosin Adebayo, in a statement on Thursday, said that Ajoke had not only left the school since 2023 but the cause of her death was also not in any way connected to the institution.
He said, “The deceased 300-level student who allegedly committed suicide dropped out of the institution over poor academic performance over a year back.
“For the unfortunate incident that claimed the life of an ex-student, one Ajoke, who had left our school since 2023 based on her failure in her academics.
“Our investigations through Adigbe Division of Nigeria Police Force, Ogun State Police Command indicated that Ajoke died of a poisonous substance she took when she didn’t know who exactly was responsible for her pregnancy, and all efforts to get it terminated proved abortive as she later resorted to suicide to cover her shame.
“This is nothing but the truth about Ajoke’s death. We believe that all records, exhibits and the police are there for anybody to see and interrogate on the remote and immediate cause of her death.”
Also speaking on the shutting of the school, Adebayo said, “It’s no doubt that Nursing as a course didn’t start in Nigeria as an academic course, but it did start in Nigeria as a professional course with Schools of Nursing, and their graduates were awarded, after three years of studies, (RN) – Registered Nursing and (RM) -Registered Midwifery, respectively.
“But, the recent upgrade changed the face of Nursing Science in Nigeria as it’s being taught as both academic and professional just like other professional courses, such as Medicine, Law, Engineering, Medical Laboratory Science, Pharmacy, and Accounting, among others for which students must offer certain academic courses for a certain number of years before they are finally qualified for professional training which prepare them for licencing and the professions.
“What the upgrade by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) now means is that Colleges of Nursing are statutorily empowered to award National Diploma and Higher National Diploma in Nursing Science before professional exams by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCH) and licencing to operate in the health sector.
“This was what the National Board of Technical Education (NBTE) requested Harvarde College of Science, Business and Management Studies to do by taking out ND and HND for Nursing Science completely from the college and creating a separate College of Nursing where ND and HND Nursing Science will be run”.
The management, however, said in compliance with the NBTE’s directive, the school has established an entirely new College of Nursing Science named PenHarvard College of Nursing which has a separate structure and Nursing equipment different from the structure and equipment being used by Harvarde College of Science, Business and Management Studies.
