Health activists blame CHED for nursing board leak

First posted 05:30pm (Mla time)
Sept 17, 2006
By Alcuin Papa
Inquirer

A GROUP of militant health workers said on Sunday that giving the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) supervision of review centers is rewarding it for the alleged incompetence that led to the alleged leakage in the last nursing board exam.

The Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD) added that the CHED itself is responsible for the leakage by not checking the deterioration of the quality of nursing education in the country.
“Putting nursing review centers under the CHED to supposedly monitor and regulate them is like giving (the illegal drug) shabu to a known addict in dire need of rehabilitation,” said Rosamond Olivar, a nurse at the Philippine General Hospital and HEAD spokesperson.

She added: "The proliferation of review centers is largely an offshoot of the substandard education provided by many nursing schools. This substandard education has been abetted and perpetuated by the CHED itself."

Olivar noted that the CHED had disregarded and continues to ignore recommendations of its own Technical Committee on Nursing Education (TCNE) on how to improve the quality of nursing education.

This is the reason, Olivar said, that prompted members of the TCNE to resign last July.
“The CHED has buckled down to pressure from poor performing schools, politicians and Malacañang by sacrificing quality for mediocrity and business interests,” Olivar stressed.

Dr. Gene Alzona Nisperos, HEAD secretary-general, also said CHED had failed in its mission to ensure and maintain quality higher education. “The mushrooming of nursing review centers is undeniable proof of this since the existence of review centers is anathema to quality education. So why should the CHED be given additional tasks?"

The group also said the recent controversy over review centers was being used by the Arroyo government, the CHED in particular, to milk revenues from review centers which have been operating at a profit.