Labor chief questions oath-taking of nurse-flunkers

By Leila Salaverria, Jerome Aning
Inquirer
First Posted 09:31pm (Mla time) 11/09/2006


LABOR Secretary Arturo Brion on Thursday gave the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) five days to explain why several students who did not pass the recent nursing board exams had been allowed to be inducted as nurses.

Brion issued the order after a panel of Department of Labor and Employment officials that he had formed to study the results of the leak-tainted tests found that some the original and recomputed scores of examinees had been altered.

“There were glaring discrepancies in the grades that the PRC needs to explain. Obviously there were manipulations,” said a member of the panel who asked not to be identified.

Brion did not go so far as to accuse the PRC of “grade-fixing,” as the panel had only examined the scores of about 400 examinees, or less than one percent of the 42,000 who took the tests.

According to the source, nearly half of the 400 examinees had scores in PRC’s original list that were different from the final list of passers that the commission issued after the leak controversy was resolved.

Reports of a leak had prompted the PRC to compute again the scores of all examinees. It decided that all who failed would have to retake the tests.

However, the Court of Appeals later ruled that only those who benefited from the leak should take the exam again. Thereafter, the PRC issued a third and final list of passers which included those who were “deemed passed” because their scores were near the passing grade of 75.

The panel discovered that some of those who were entered in the third list were named as flunkers in the original list.

“The more serious problem here is the fact that some of those who failed were able to take their oath so I think the PRC should explain who was responsible,” the source added.