‘Core issues in test leak fiasco still unresolved’
THE nursing mess remains unresolved because the government agencies looking for a solution are shirking their responsibility and do not feel accountable to anyone, a group claimed yesterday.
The Health Alliance for Democracy said the decision of the Court of Appeals approving the oathtaking of the passers of the tainted June licensure exams—and ordering a retake for those suspected of having cheated—eased the burden on the officials investigating the cheating.
But the decision fell short of expectations, it said.
“The [Court of Appeals’] decision may have eased the burden on officials investigating the cheating, but it did not deal with the core issues that the leak has exposed,” said Gene Alzona Nisperos, head of the group comprising doctors, nurses and other health professionals.
On Friday, the appellate court cleared the oathtaking of the successful June examinees but ordered a retake for those suspected of having gained from the test questions leaked on part of the tests.
Some 40,000 nursing graduates took the June exams and 17,000 passed. But the results have been tainted by the discovery that three nursing review schools had leaked test questions to their enrollees before the exams.
Nisperos made his statement even as congressmen appealed to those affected by the cheating scandal to wait for the appellate court’s decision on an appeal against its ruling for a selective retake of the licensure tests.
House Deputy Majority Leader Antonio Cerilles and Bulacan Rep. Lorna Silverio said the cheating in the exams was regrettable, but a compromise was needed to remove the stigma from the nursing profession.
“We still see no reason for the [appellate court] to change its order, which is fair and balanced for all those affected by the exam leak,” Cerilles said.
“Government agencies should prepare to execute the [court’s] final order when it comes, and whatever it is.”
Silverio said it was simply a matter of time before the nursing mess would be over.
“We urge everyone to remain calm and wait patiently for [court’s] final ruling,” she said.
But Nisperos said that while the appellate court may have eased the burden of the Professional Regulation Commission, the nursing board, the Commission on Higher Education and the labor department—the agencies looking into the nursing mess—it did not deal with issues such as the integrity and competence of nurses and the profiteering in the nursing schools and review centers.
He said substandard nursing schools and review centers were proliferating, and mainly because the government agencies tasked to oversee them were not doing their jobs. Macon Ramos Araneta and Joel M. Sy Egco
