Labor chief submits draft of order mandating exam ‘retake’

By Jerome Aning
Inquirer
Last updated 07:36am (Mla time) 10/04/2006

LABOR Secretary Arturo Brion Tuesday said he had submitted to Malacañang a draft executive order mandating a retake of those portions of the June nursing board exam that were tainted by a leak of test questions.

Brion said the retake would be “for all,” contrary to the insistence of some nursing graduates that the retake should be only for those who had benefited from the leak.

“Integrity is not divisible and the problem here is the integrity of the professional licensure exam. It (the retake) can’t be for Luzon only [where the leak occurred], it must be for all,” he told reporters in an interview.

Brion said the retake would only be on the exam portions on medical surgical nursing and psychiatric mental health.

The labor secretary said he met with officials of the Professional Regulation Commission late last week to discuss President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s directive on the retake as well as how to avoid a similar problem in government-administered tests in the future.

“They [PRC officials] said they are going to wait for the EO and that they would also like to meet with the President. I replied that it was up to them. What’s important is for the EO to come out and then to hear their reaction,” he said.

PRC officials had earlier said there was no need for a retake as the grades of the examinees had been recomputed around the portions that were leaked. They had been seeking an audience with the President apparently to press their no-retake stand.

In Bacolod City, government and church officials joined local nursing graduates and their parents in asking Ms Arroyo to spare them from a retake.

The Alliance of Concerned Parents had sought the officials’ intercession and started a signature campaign to oppose the President’s retake order.

Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra said he supported the no-retake stand and would write a letter to the President.

Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon said the innocent exam-takers should not be penalized for the leak, adding that this was unfair to them.

Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia said a deeper study should be undertaken to spare the innocent.

The ACP members’ children had graduated from Riverside College, Colegio de San Agustin, University of St. La Salle and Central Adventist College.

The parents pointed out that there was no evidence the students from the four schools had benefited from the leak.

They passed the test “honestly, fairly, squarely and with a clean conscience,” the parents said.
They also cited the additional expenses they would have to shoulder if their children were made to retake the exam.

They asked the President to cancel her retake order, appealing to her “wisdom, and motherly and humanitarian heart.” With Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas