CHED issues warning to 132 nursing schools

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) disclosed yesterday that the agency had warned 132 nursing schools whose graduates have consistently flunked the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) nursing licensure examinations for five years to either shape up or phase out their nursing programs.

CHED chairman Emmanuel Angeles said that they were closely monitoring the performance of the schools and the agency would close their nursing programs if they fail to improve their graduates’ average passing rate in the PRC licensure exams to at least above the national passing rate of 46.14 percent.

Angeles said CHED had covered 456 nursing schools operating in the country and evaluated the performance of their graduates in PRC nursing licensure exams from 2004 to 2008.

“With this move, we are helping not only the parents and students to carefully choose the nursing schools they go to, but we are helping our economy by minimizing frustrations and wastage among our nursing graduates when they take the licensure exams and make sure that they get only quality education from schools that adhere to world class standards that we are now imposing,” Angeles said.

Angeles said CHED was pursuing this effort to clamp down on sub-standard nursing schools despite threats from these institutions of legal action against the commission.

“They can file their legal action. It will not prosper in court,” Angeles said in a press briefing at the CHED central office at the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City.

“Everything we do has a legal basis,” Angeles stressed, saying that CHED has the mandate to ensure quality education for the Filipino youth. –Rainier Allan Ronda (The Philippine Star)