|
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Nursing exams passers troop to Cebu to take oath
More nursing graduates, including those from outside Cebu, took their oaths yesterday morning before Acting Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) 7 Director Dan Malayang.
They beat the 60-day temporary restraining order (TRO) the Court of Appeals issued yesterday against the oath-taking of students who passed the nursing licensure exam given last June.
The appellate court also enjoined PRC officials and the Board of Nursing (BON) from implementing the assailed Resolution 31.
Petitioner Rene Luis Tadle, president of the faculty of the University of Sto. Tomas College of Nursing, claimed that Resolution 31 invalidated portions of the nursing examinations taken by some 42,600 students due to leakage.
Of the students who took the nursing exam, only 17,821 passed the tests.
In a resolution penned by Associate Justice Vicente Veloso, the CA Special Third Division ordered the PRC and the BON to file their comment on the petition within 10 days, without necessarily giving due course to the petition.
The CA’s order came following reports that the PRC has allowed the oath-taking of new nurses in several provinces despite the pending the investigation on the alleged leakage of test questions during the June 11 and 26 exams.
The board, upon the supervision of the PRC, has earlier set the schedule for the oath-taking on Aug. 22.
“The way I see it, when the results of the exam come out, it becomes a right of the successful examinees to register and to take their oath and there is nothing wrong and illegal with it,” Malayang said over radio dyLA yesterday.
Malayang himself administered the oath-taking of another batch of new nurses that came to his office yesterday morning.
Last Thursday, 1,400 board passers took their oaths despite a petition filed before the appellate court questioning the credibility of the exam.
Malayang said, though, that he was only following the order of PRC Chairperson Leonor Rosero giving him the authority to conduct the oath-taking until the court resolves the petition.
PRC Commissioner Avelina de la Rea said they pushed through with the oath-taking because the investigations of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) would take time.
She said the PRC could revoke the licenses of nurses if the NBI investigation proves that they have benefited from the leakage.
The appellate court set a hearing for preliminary injunction on Sept. 14.
For his part, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. said suspending the oath-taking will be unfair for the students who passed the exam, adding that it was well within the authority of the PRC to set the date for the oath-taking.
“That’s unfair for the majority of those who took the test, who did not cheat. Why are you punishing them? They worked for it. I don’t think the integrity of the exam board should be used to punish those students who passed the exam,” he said.
Gonzalez further said that the leakage of information on the tests should not be taken for cheating. “You can’t blame (the nursing students) if they were tipped off. It would be wrong if you cheat but if you get information, you’re lucky. Cheats are those who leaked the information,” he said.
The petition for injunction was filed on Thursday by a University of Sto. Tomas (UST)-led school of nursing, which asked for the suspension of the Aug. 22 oath-taking of new nurses, pending the result of an investigation regarding the leakage.
The exams covered five testing areas: (Test I) Fundamentals of Nursing Practice; (Test II) Community Health/Maternal and Child Nursing; (Test III) Medical/Surgical Nursing; (Test- V) Medical/Surgical Nursing; and (Test V) Neuro-Psychiatric Nursing.
However, leakages in Tests III and V plagued the examinations as many review centers acquired copies of questions asked in these tests a few days before the scheduled examination and shared these leaked questions with their reviewees.
To remedy the anomaly brought about by the leakage, the PRC approved a scheme for using the grades from the other portions of the examinations in computing the grades from the invalidated portions.
This, petitioners said, as well as the scheduling of the oath-taking despite the pending investigation on the leakage, constituted grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack of jurisdiction on the part of respondents.
Meanwhile, Malacañang distanced itself in the controversy continue hounding the 2006 nursing licensure examinations.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the PRC remains on top of the situation and Malacañang prefers to leave the matter to them. “The PRC has the situation under control so there is not reason for the Palace to intervene,” he said. (Sunnex)/AIV)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 19, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
