Seventy-nine medical students at the Kenya Medical Training College Kakamega campus will miss out on the Clinical Officers Council exams due to delayed registration.
The students, who say they paid Sh5,000 for exam registration in 2016, were on Friday surprised when they received information that they would not sit the exam, which begins on Wednesday (today).
“We are deeply surprised that we can’t sit for our licensing exam, which begins on Wednesday, yet we paid for it three years ago when we were admitted to this college. All this time we haven’t received our index numbers,” student Lodivicus Wanjala said.
She said they had unsuccessfully tried to seek help from the college administration concerning the registration.
"On Friday we received a WhatsApp message on our group saying that we were not going to sit the exams because we didn’t book online, yet we haven’t received our index numbers which are supposed to be our passwords to the COC portal,” Munene Ronald, another student, said.
After a medical training course, one has to take the COC exams in order to be licensed to practice.
The students say they will be forced to wait another two years to start practising.
Principal Jeremiar Ngomo acknowledged there was a delay by the course head of the department in registering the students for the COC exams.
He said however there was no cause for alarm because he had spoken to the Clinical Officers Council, and they had agreed to reactivate the registration portal in a week’s time for the students to register.
Ngomo said though the students will sit the exams in April-May next year, they will be able to go for the internship together with those sitting exams this week.
"I'm appealing to the students to calm down and be ready with their registration documents. We have spoken to the Clinical Officers Council, and they have agreed to reopen the registration portal in one week's time so they can register for the exam," the principal said.
Meanwhile, the students hinted that they were consulting a lawyer to help them find a way forward on the matter.