EDITORIAL - Why not a retake?

The Presidential Task Force on National Licensure Examination has asked the Court of Appeals to invalidate the scores of two areas in the Nursing board that was tainted with allegations of leakage and let board takers take a new examination on the two areas on the expense of the government to once and for all "repair the damage done to the reputation and integrity of the nursing exam."

This, to us, is the most sensible thing to do if only to stop the talks about the alleged leakage and to clear the integrity of the ones who took the examination.

Of course, one can always argue that why should all the board takers be punished by having to retake parts of the examination when only a few reportedly cheated? Well, let us just put it this way. Having to retake the two areas where there was alleged leakage may be some kind of a punishment for those who really studied hard for the exams and did not take part in the reported cheating. But is it not more of a punishment to be forever branded that one took an exam that was tainted with cheating?

For sure prospective employers of nurses have heard of the alleged leakage and have come to know about the circumstances surrounding it. And we cannot blame these prospective employers if they would think twice in accepting those who took the 2006 Nursing Board Exams because even if only a few were reported to have benefited from the alleged leakage, the integrity of the whole exam was damaged with the reports of alleged cheating.

A retake in the two areas where there was alleged leakage, with the government footing the bill, would somehow repair the damage caused to the reputation and integrity of the nursing board exam. This would clear once and for all the doubts hounding it and would save those who took the exams last June from the stigma of being branded as one of the takers of an exam that was tainted with alleged leakage.