TOKYO: Japan will provide English translations in a professional nursing exam to remove a language hurdle for foreign applicants after almost all of them failed the test this year, officials said Wednesday.
Hundreds of nurses and caregivers from Indonesia and the Philippines have been allowed to work temporarily in rapidly ageing Japan, but they have to pass the Japanese language test if they hope to stay longer than a few years.
To respond to rising complaints that the tests are discriminatory, the health ministry has also decided to simplify the wording of some of the exam questions ahead of the next test in February, ministry officials said.
“We have decided to review the exams because they place an extra burden on foreign applicants,” said Yoko Shimada of the ministry’s nursing section.
“English translations will help foreign nurse applicants read and understand the national examinations well, and we consider it’s appropriate.”
Historically, Japan has imposed tight limits on immigration but has allowed several hundred certified nurses and care-givers from Indonesia and the Philippines into the country to help make up a shortage of heal-thcare workers.
Those who hope to stay longer than three years in the case of nurses, and four years in the case of caregivers, need to pass the examinations, forcing them to quickly learn thousands of Japanese characters and medical terms.
This year only three people—two Indonesian nurses and one from the Philippines—passed the test, while the other 251 applicants failed.
A health ministry survey in February showed that more than 90 percent of elderly and disabled people said they were satisfied with the services Indonesian caregiver candidates gave them in nursing-care facilities.
Meanwhile, Sen. Edgardo Angara, chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, expressed alarm over the deterioration of the quality of nursing education in the country.
He said that the deterioration of nursing education could affect the chances of Filipino nurses’ landing jobs abroad. He noted that Filipino nurses had been in great demand abroad and had been contributors to the Philippine economy.
He traced this problem to the lack of accreditation of nursing schools and the unregulated operation of nursing review centers.
Angara said that the number of nursing schools had jumped from 189 in 1998 to 466 in 2009. Only 77 of the 466 nursing schools are accredited. The mushrooming of nursing schools had resulted in a surplus of nursing graduates in the country, most of whom could not find any job.
He said these schools are taking advantage of the eagerness of enrollees to secure job opportunities abroad.
He also noted that the passing rate in the Nursing Licensure Examinations had drastically gone down from 51.6 percent in 2005 to 40.7 percent in 2009. –Efren Danao and AFP
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