The Senegalese Collective of Heads of Health Training Establishments (COSEPS) expressed, during a general assembly held in Mbour, its desire to dialogue with the government to organize an interministerial council according to the Senegalese Press Agency. The objective is to examine the difficulties of private health training institutes and find solutions for the problems that undermine the sector.
Souleymane Aliou Diallo, vice-president of COSEPS, insisted on the need for an inclusive interministerial council, including the active participation of the collective. “We want a consultation with the State of Senegal to move towards an inclusive inter-ministerial council in which we must take part, to review the ills of the sector,” he declared.
This request comes in a context where health training institutes operate under the supervision of three different ministries: Higher Education, Vocational Training, and Health. Abdoulaye Gaye, president of COSEPS, described this situation as “hybrid”, emphasizing that this multiplicity of supervision complicates the management of establishments.
Mr. Gaye also highlighted a major financial problem: health training schools, which train the majority of the country’s health personnel, receive no state subsidies. “We train 80% of the health personnel that we make available to the State, which assigns them to take care of the health of the population, but we do not have any subsidies,” he said.
This lack of financial support poses considerable challenges for institutes, which struggle to maintain an adequate level of training without additional resources. Mr. Gaye called for “broad consultations to find solutions to this situation”, emphasizing the importance of consolidating achievements and innovating to move health training establishments forward.
The ordinary general assembly of COSEPS, which took place from Saturday to Sunday in Mbour, brought together nearly 45 heads of health training establishments. This meeting was an opportunity to discuss common challenges and to formulate concrete proposals to improve the situation of the institutes.
COSEPS hopes that the organization of an interministerial council will make it possible to clarify the administrative supervision of health training schools, secure their financing, and initiate reforms to meet the growing needs for qualified health personnel in Senegal.
