It was jubilation galore for both students and staff of some health institutions earlier shutdown by the Gombe state government, as the news of their reopening filtered into the state.
Not less than Seventeen private colleges of health and technology, were earlier this year shutdown by the government sequel to their alleged failure to meet up with the required standards.
At this time, Seven out of the seventeen earlier closed down by the government, have been given the order to commence learning activities.
This, was revealed by the Commissioner during an interactive session with news men, yesterday in the state, has become necessary because of their ” compliance with the stipulated medical standards by the regulatory bodies.”
The committee, which he said went round all the health institutions was mandated to review and revalidate private health institutions spread across the state.
The decision to reopen the schools, as made known by the Commissioner, was collectively arrived at by the State Executive Council (SEC) meeting, which was presided over by the state governor Inuwa Yahaya.
“Our collective resolve to reopen these seven colleges of health technology was arrived at because this government is very much concerned about the welfare and health of its citizens”.
It was gathered that the committee went around the seventeen institutions to assess the facilities and other requirements, came back satisfied with the accreditation and status of seven out of the seventeen.
He gave the name of the seven private health institutions as ” Fountain College of Health Science and Technology, Tumfure; Conformance College of Health Science and Technology, Billiri; Garkuwa College of Health Science and Technology, Gombe.
“Others, as enumerated by him include Lamido School of Hygiene, Liji; Ummah College of Health Science and Technology; Dukku International College of Health Science and Technology and Haruna Rashid College of Health Science and Technology, Dukku.”
He pleaded with the leaders of the reopened schools not to cease maintaining the standards and never to go beyond the approved programmes.
Giving his weight to that of Umar, the state Commissioner of Health, said the committee was not biased in its assessments.
Accreditation with regulatory bodies and provision of standard structures like classrooms, laboratories and demonstration rooms, provision of clinics, libraries and e-learning facilities, among others, according to the health commissioner, are the yardstick the committee put in place in accessing the schools.