Senate to tackle nursing board scandal Wednesday

Grads protest suggestions to retake test

By Veronica Uy
INQ7.net
Last updated 06:07pm (Mla time) 08/15/2006

(UPDATE) TO RETAKE or not to retake. That’s the question Senate has to take up at Wednesday’s hearing on the alleged leak in the 2006 nursing licensure examination, a senator said.

But over at the Philippine Regulations Commission (PRC), hundreds of the examinees staged a rally to protest proposals they retake the exam, while others held their own mass action to favor the idea.

Senator Rodolfo Biazon, head of the Senate committee on civil service and government reorganization, said the hearing, which will “assess who caused the leak,” is open to the public.
“Those who took the exam are welcome to attend the Senate hearing so that they can witness and participate in the resolution of this problem,” he said.

A total of 42,006 nursing graduates took the board examinations on June 11 and 12. Forty-two percent or 17,871 of the examinees passed.

Accusations of test leakages surfaced after an examinee complained that other board takers had admitted to obtaining copy of the answers three days before the licensure examinations.

The deans of nursing colleges and Senator Richard Gordon have said all examinees must retake the exam to dispel the alleged cheating that tainted the test.

The scandal is feared to adversely affect the public health sector and the deployment of Filipino nurses abroad.

At the PRC rally, Andrea Enriquez, a nursing graduate from the Philippine Women’s University, said those who attended the rally came from her school, the United Doctors Medical Center, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Pasig and Manila Doctors Hospital College.

"We are all for the investigation and speedy resolution of the case, but we believe that retaking the exams is not the solution to the problem," Enriquez told the Inquirer on the sidelines of the protest.

Enriquez said members of the Association of Deans of Philippine Colleges of Nursing and officials of the PRC were trying to decide whether or not to give another examination for those who took the June test.

She added that a majority of the deans were pushing for them to take the exams all over again, which Enriquez said she found objectionable.

But not all prospective nurses agreed with Enriquez and her group.

"Retaking the examinations would cleanse our batch's negative image as cheaters," said a nursing graduate who requested anonymity. Margaux Ortiz, Inquirer