People enrolled in the nursing programme at the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College (SVGCC) in January 2026 are complaining that they have to pay admission fees, despite the waiver announcement of the government, says opposition senator Carlos James.
Shortly after being sworn into office in November 2025, Prime Minister Dr Godwin Friday announced that admission fees to the SVGCC would be removed, as his government promised during the election campaign.
However, James, who was voted out of office in the polls, read on Star Radio, the opposition Unity Labour Party’s radio station, a note that he said a student had sent him.
“So, we were fooled by the so-called NDP party. Now they stated that we don’t have to pay college fees on a whole, and now three months into the program, they are saying that we have to pay,” James quoted the note as saying.
“What I think they forgot was that come January, there was another enrolment cohort that had not yet paid their fees,” James said.
“The nurses are part of the Division of Nursing Education, here it is that just a month ago, you said upon the enrolment in the SVGCC, we are going to waive all the fees completely, forgetting that in January, there is a new cohort of student nurses to be enrolled in the Division of Nursing Education,” he added.
The opposition senator said that based on additional information provided by the students,
The total fees for the three-year programme amounted to EC$3,240, in addition to registration and clinical examination fees.
“They can go back and change and say they were not supposed to pay, but I have the record here and they have been asked to pay fees,” James said.
James said it was believed that the government would fulfil its mandate to pay the fees for all students but the students were reaching out, indicating that they were being told that they had to pay the fees.
I find nothing credible in what anyone from the ULP says.