NURSING Dean Glenda Vargas and the other members of the Technical Committee on Nursing Education of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) have resigned to protest the CHED’S alleged inability to foster quality nursing education.
The mass resignation was reportedly sparked by the CHED’s appointment of George Cordero, president of the Philippine Nurses Association, as a member of the technical committee.
Vargas and the others reportedly said the appointment would constitute conflict of interest since Cordero owns a nursing school.
The mass resignations highlighted concerns about the growing commercialization—and corollarily the deteriorating quality–of nursing education in the Philippines.
The concerns were emphasized when 91 takers of the Nursing licensure examinations last June 11 to 12 in Baguio City filed a complaint with the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), alleging there had been a leak of the test questions.
The leak’s beneficiary, according to the complaint, was the R.A. Gapuz Review Center in Baguio.
The Association of Deans of the Philippine Colleges of Nursing, where Vargas is a member, urged the PRC “to act in haste” and “to create an independent board of Inquiry” to investigate the case.
The call was made after the 91 examinees complained that some members of the Board of Nursing (BON) tried to block their complaint.
“The exam is the basis of knowing if the graduates are ready to practice the profession,” Vargas told the Varsitarian. “If the allegations of cheating are true, then what kind of nurses will we have?”
However, Mia Gapuz, president of the R.A. Gapuz Review Center, denied the allegation.
“While certain quarters have been maliciously spreading nasty and unforced rumors about our alleged involvement, we have not received any (substantiated) complaint regarding (this),” Gapuz said.
The BON, in a press release last June 20, denied there was a leak.
Amid controversies, Vargas said she hopes that Ray Gapuz, a UST Nursing graduate in 1992 and owner of the review center, would be able to disprove the allegation. Ivan Angelo L. de Lara
