Unfair

It is really unfair to the nursing aspirants who did not benefit from the leakage to be punished by requiring them to retake the exams all over again. These frustrated "Florence Nightingales" have invested so much time, money and effort to realize their life long dream of someday becoming the breadwinner and repaying the blood, sweat and tears shed by their parents. They struggled a lot and studied so hard just to finish their course and become full fledged nurses with the thought that their services are not only very much in demand abroad but are handsomely paid. Something is really wrong if they will be made to suffer and be punished for the fault of a few who masterminded the scandalous leakage.

Undoubtedly the good reputation of Filipino nurses as one of the best in the world has been badly damaged because of this leakage. But there must be other ways to salvage this damaged reputation than ordering a retake. It may be argued that if they really passed the exams, another one would not be much of a problem; that if they were able to hurdle the first one, they will surely pass another test with more flying colors; that they must be ready to make this sacrifice for the sake of the profession itself. Well and good; except that most of these graduates I am sure come from poor families who must have sold almost everything they have because of the promise of a bright future. It is quite heartless to tell them now that they will still have to give up some more, wait a little longer, and study again just because a few greedy persons have made big bucks out of their intense desire to improve their lives and that of their families.

Other than imposing wholesale punishment by requiring both the successful examinees who did not benefit from the leakage and those who profited from it, the international reputation of our nursing profession can still be regained by taking several concrete and decisive steps.

First of all, to make it less cumbersome and fairer to our nursing aspirants, a retake of the examination should be held only on those items where the leakage occurred. Since it is really hard to pinpoint who took advantage of the leakage from those who did not, I am sure the innocent ones would find the wisdom and fairness of this proposed solution and would not object anymore.

Secondly and more important, the holes for future leakages must be plugged. Initially, to deter the culprits from committing further fraud of the same kind, a comprehensive and sweeping investigation of those responsible for the scam should be conducted, so that those found culpable can be prosecuted and clamped in jail if called for by law. The leak continues because the perpetrators can afford to buy their way out. Already, a witness has recanted her previous sworn statement.

Then the cause of the leakages must be determined. It seems that government licensure examinations have been plague by leakages of the test questions. Even the bar exams have not been spared of this problem. Common in these exams is the big number of aspirants eagerly desiring to pass. Such factor is enough temptation to commit a fraud because of facility in raising big payola without too much cost to the examinees as their small "contributions" can be pooled together to "buy" the test questions. Limiting the number of examinees and increasing the frequency of the exams may discourage the perpetrators because the risk of being caught may not be worth it.

The source of the leakage must likewise be established and this is not hard to do. The primary suspects are always the examiners who prepare the test questions. They must not be given the opportunity to pass on the questionnaires by their complete isolation during the formulation of the test questions and by sealing these questions once formulated. The interval between the preparation of the test questions and the exams must be so brief as to have no more time for the possible leakages. Maybe the exams should be held the day after the questions have been formulated.

Finally, the nursing course itself should undergo some rigid examination and needed improvement. The Commission on Higher Education must be stricter in the accreditation of nursing schools and nursing review centers. The ever growing demand for our nurses abroad has undoubtedly resulted in the commercialization of the nursing schools. The business element and profit motive have seeped into these schools that are supposed to be purely for educational purposes. Closer supervision and stricter control are called for in order to weed out nursing institutions established merely as a business venture. The 42,000 aspirants who took the recent examinations are proof enough that there are quite a number of such fly by night profit centered schools.

The recent fraudulent leakage in the nursing exams is therefore an eye-opener for the government. They should pay closer attention to this profession otherwise another potent dollar earner will slip out of our hands.

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