Friday, May 23, 2008 Suspension of new nursing curriculum sought
THE country's largest consortium of private colleges and universities in the country on Thursday rejected the new set of guidelines for the BS Nursing program and asked the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) to suspend the implementation
The Coordinating Council of Private Educational Association (Cocopea), which is also the umbrella organization of five educational associations in the country, namely, the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (Pacu), Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP), Association of Christian Schools Colleges and Universities (Acscu), Technical Vocational Schools Association of the Philippines (Tevsaphil) and the Philippine Association of Private Schools Colleges and Universities (Papscu) called the new directive "disastrous."
"Legally speaking, there is a defect in implementing the new proposed policies since it did not go through a genuine public hearing. We are appealing to Ched to suspend the implementation until we have considered an in depth and at length how we can truly improve the quantity and quality of the nurses we educate," said Fr. Rod Salazar Jr., chairman of Cocopea.
Fr. Joel Tabora, CEAP regional director and president of the Ateneo de Naga, also stressed, "It is a disastrous policy. It will make us choppy and will force students to drop out and to corrupt."
Ched Memorandum Order (MO) 5 directs nursing schools throughout the country to adopt the new policies and standards for Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) Program starting this school year. Ched released the order on May 14, 2008.
Cocopea said the schools reject the implementation of MO 5 due to the following reasons: no public hearings were conducted by Ched; new nursing curriculum will unduly burden nursing students as they will have to endure more than 28 additional units, plus three summers; the required learning experience (RLE) increased by 561 hours or 11 units from the present 2,142 hours; and additional nursing subjects in the first two years, replacing General Education subjects, among others.
Tabora said instead of the usual 79 units taken up by first year nursing students, the new guidelines will require students to take up 93 units in 2,632 hours.
The difficulties of finding suitable hospitals and places for RLE will also aggravate the logistical problem of schools once MO 5 will be enforced, added Salazar.
Cocopea claimed there are not enough hospitals for the required clinical hours.
Salazar said there is also a possibility that the nursing enrollees in private colleges will dwindle with the new Ched proposed policies.
"We have barely two months to go before the Academic Year will start and we, as heads of our respective institutions and educational associations, feel that the implications of the proposed changes in curriculum are too heavy for our educational system to implement this soon," said Salazar.
According to him, he already sent a letter to Ched chairman Romulo Neri requesting for the immediate suspension of the new curriculum.
Should Ched refuse to heed their plea, Salazar said the association will explore all possible legal remedies to halt its implementation.
He said they might even ask President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to intervene on the matter.
At least 19 of the 31 private school administrators attended the press conference at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan. They said they will await Ched's response on their proposal to suspend the implementation of MO 5 before performing legal actions.
Asked to comment, Neri referred to Ched executive director William Medrano who was also unavailable as he was allegedly out of town.
A Ched official who asked not to be named said Medrano is "around" but would not want to comment on the issue. (AH/Sunnex)
