By Neo Kolane
Cabinet has approved the drafting of the Lesotho College of Health Sciences (LCHS) Bill, 2023.
In a recent savingram, government secretary Lerotholi Pheko announced that this will pave way for the transfer of the National Health Training College (NHTC) from the ministry of health to the ministry of education and training.
The development will see the NHTC gaining freedom to be an independent higher education public institution in accordance with the High Education Act 2004.
It will now be known as the Lesotho College of Health Sciences.
Health minister and his health and education and training counterpart, Selibe Mochoboroane and Ntoi Rapapa confirmed this in a joint memorandum, C3(2023/11/66).
LCHS Bill, 2023 will consequentially repeal the National Health Training College Order No. 2 of 1992, Pheko said.
It will now be sent to parliament for debate and if approved, to His Majesty King Letsie III for royal assent before it becomes law.
The new status will go a long way in helping the NHTC to improve its operations and performance.
theReporter has learned that college does not even have a bank account in its name. The tuition fees that the National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS) pays out to students do not go to the college but go straight into the government’s account.
This was disclosed recently by ministry of health PS ‘Maneo Ntene Ntene while addressing the parliament’s portfolio committee on social cluster.
Ntene assured the committee that the ministry was working to ensure the college becomes independent.
She said during discussions with the Council of Higher Education (CHE), the latter suggested that the NHTC be closed if it continues failing to meet higher education standards.
She explained that that the matter came up when CHE was thinking of closing the college because of its failure to comply, poor performance, and the way it is managed.
In March this year, the director of academics at NHTC, ‘Malefela Lehana, said the college’s operations were being affected immensely by lack of sufficient budgetary allocations from the government.
Lehana said NHTC is unique in that it is the only government institution offering health training programmes required by the ministry of health. The others running academic health programmes are independent.
The NHTC was established through the 1992 Order of parliament, entitling it to sponsorship by the ministry of health.
“When the budget of the ministry is cut, the budget of NHTC gets cut also. It is unlike other government institutions that are allowed to find ways to generate money by themselves. NHTC is not allowed to make any other form of resource mobilisation,” Lehana noted.
She said it was crucial that the college is autonomous and transferred to the ministry of education and training because “we are unable to meet the full accreditation standards of higher education”.
NHTC could not even manage its budget as this was done by the ministry of health.
“All the college is able to do is to submit requisitions,” she explained.
