GMA set to sign order for nursing test retake

William Depasupil and Sam Mediavilla
Manila Times

The implementing guidelines for the retaking of the June nursing licensure examination could be drawn up within five days after President Arroyo signs an executive order for it, Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said Tuesday.

“I expect the executive order to be signed within the day. After it is signed, we will come out with the implementing guidelines after five days,” Brion said in a radio interview.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the order could be signed Wednesday.

A retake, Brion explained, is necessary because the results of the inquiries conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation, the Professional Regulation Commission and even the Senate all established that a leak took place and that two members of the Board of Nursing were involved.

All examinees in the leakage-tainted tests, Brion said, would be required to take the tests again at no cost to them. The usual examination fee is P900.“We discussed it in the Cabinet meeting [on Tuesday] and the entire Cabinet decided on a retake,” Brion said.

“The integrity of the examination is really questionable and the question for us is: can we as a country stand for this kind of professional licensure examination, especially for nurses, who take care of the lives and health of our people and the people overseas whom they are servicing right now?” Brion said.

At stake are the integrity of the licensure examination and the character of nursing as a profession, he said.

“It would be for the good of the national interest and the nursing examinees because as of now, their integrity and credibility as nurses are already tainted,” Brion said.

According to Brion, the details for the planned retake are already in the executive order.

He said PRC’s Resolution 31, which ordered a recomputation of Tests 3 and 5 to make adjustments on the grades of the examinees because of the leakage, has been invalidated.

“We don’t agree to toning down grades on Tests 3 and 5. I don’t understand why it should be done,” he said. “Everybody should take the examination again.”

The retake, he added, could be done before or during the regular nursing board exam scheduled in December. The problem is the vacancies in the Board of Nursing, which the President has still to fill up, Brion said.

Brion agreed with the suggestion of Dr. Dante A. Ang, chairman of the Commission for Filipinos Overseas, for a retake.

Ang has been pushing for a retake to save the integrity of the nursing profession.

Brion said students reapplying for the exams will not have to pay the P900 fee, because the government has allocated P52 million for the retest.

Ermita said Brion’s recommendation had been handed to the President, but that Mrs. Arroyo could still make revisions.