PRC chief denies manipulation of grades in nursing exam

Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) chairman Leonor Rosero cried foul yesterday over the allegation of Labor Secretary Arturo Brion that results of the nursing licensure test last June were manipulated.

"I cannot accept that there was manipulation of grades. We did not do any manipulation. We merely re-computed the grades and we have legal basis for doing that," Rosero told The STAR.

The PRC re-computed the results of Tests III and V, questions of which were leaked out to some examinees prior to the exams.

But as a result of the re-computation, a total of 1,167 examinees that initially failed the test passed, while 1,184 passers were listed as flunkers.

According to Brion, his office is now looking into the alleged alteration of grades. He expects the investigation to be completed by Monday.

The labor chief branded the manipulation as "very disturbing," and it was the primary reason why he did not want the oath taking of the new nurses done until the controversy was resolved with finality.

The PRC, however, is expecting more than 17,000 passers to have taken their oath by Friday.

Rosero noted that in re-computing the examinees’ grades, they used a formula that was uploaded into the PRC’s computer system.

Using the formula, the system computed the grades obtained by the examinees.

"The identities of the examinees were (number) coded so we do not know who they were. We cannot tell the computer to ‘give this grade’ to these examinees primarily because we cannot tamper with the system, and their identities are concealed," she pointed out.

But on Tuesday, Brion revealed they found out that some of the examinees were allowed to take their oath when they actually failed the examination, and that some scores were padded by as much as eight points.

Brion, whom President Arroyo tasked to look into allegations of leakage in the nursing examinations, said a special team from the Department of Labor and Employment is now reviewing the grades of the examinees based on the document submitted by the PRC.

The PRC has submitted the master list of grades of the 41,000 examinees — those who were supposed to retake the exam and those who passed it, he added.

Once the investigation is completed, Brion said he would take the appropriate action against those found liable for the supposed grade alteration.

However, Brion said they respect the decision of the Court of Appeals allowing the oath taking of those who passed the nursing board exam.

He said they would submit their findings to Malacañang and let the court decide whether to revoke the licenses of those who failed but were allowed to take oath, he added.