CHED to shut down 177 nursing schools

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) will padlock some 177 nursing schools for the perennial failure of its graduates to pass the nursing licensure board examinations given by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).

CHED chairman Emmanuel Angeles said the 177 nursing schools had been found to not have even one graduate pass the board exam for the last five years.

Angeles said CHED is currently “verifying” their data before issuing an order to the schools to phase out their nursing programs.

Angeles said the agency’s crackdown on poor performing nursing schools is part of his administration’s campaign to raise the standard of education in state universities and colleges (SUCs) and private higher education institutions (HEIs).

“This phase-out process involves schools which have zero passing percentage in licensure examinations. We started with law schools, we closed down 11 law schools already,” Angeles said at the launch of “Taga-Ilog,” a campaign to raise the awareness of the youth in rehabilitating the Pasig River, spearheaded by CHED and the ABS-CBN Foundation.

Angeles stressed CHED was bent on closing down degree programs of SUCs and HEIs which show poor quality as seen through their graduates’ performance in government professional licensure examinations.

Angeles said the quality of education in the country was already lagging behind other countries.

“We are way behind our neighbors like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and soon, Vietnam may even surpass our standard,” Angeles said.

“We’re starting to be identified with Cambodia, Laos, and even East Timor. Do we want our schools to be identified with the schools of these countries? Certainly not,” he stressed.