Making beautiful music together
It had to take Darren Smith, a
“Of foreign nurses in
“I would like to share that nursing graduates from the
“A little background, this school has a board exam passing rate of below 30 percent. It consistently ranks at the bottom 20 percent of Philippine nursing schools. Among schools with more than 30 students, DMC is 12th from the bottom with a pass rate of 28 percent in the June 2006 exam and 25 percent in December. In 2000-2004 DMC had a pass rate of lower than 40 percent — a long history of poor performance.
“The new plan of CHED (Commission on Higher Education) is to close down schools with a passing rate of less than 75 percent. I applaud this plan. Good for them. American nursing schools would immediately lose their accreditation and be closed after only a few years of poor performance. DMC has been put on notice in this regard. So it is restricting new graduates from taking the upcoming licensure exam in June — unless they are willing to go through a P40,000-review course.
“The requirement in effect puts a barrier on the graduates from taking their licensing exam. The graduates are powerless because the school will not release their TOR (transcript of records) with sufficient time to apply with PRC (Professional Regulatory Commission) to take the June exam. I know of a particular case where the graduate scored well on a ‘pre-board’ test and feels very prepared to take the nursing board exam, but will be prevented from doing so in June.
“There were 366 graduates as of March 31, 2007 but, as I understand it, only 100 handpicked students who passed the ‘pre-board’ and were willing to pay P40,000 are permitted to take the June exam. Many of those 100 are second-time takers. That means about 300 grads are being denied the right to take the test in June 2007.
“You may ask, how can we let this happen? I suspect it was never the intention of CHED or PRC for a school to ‘legislate’ a P40,000-payola to review centers (the source of the last nursing scandal) as a condition to take the board exam. It’s not good for the students, or for the country. It will become the next nursing scandal: payola to review centers as a condition to take board exam. Furthermore, a poor performing school like DMC is manipulating the statistics with this action.
“I wish to share this to stop the practice before it afflicts nursing students nationwide. If they thought about doing it in Dipolog, other schools might be doing it elsewhere. I don’t know the right person to whom to direct this e-mail. Please forward this to the proper officials. These are powerless students who have no voice. I am attempting to correct a terrible situation.
“When the case of Ms Jennilyn Nesnia, BSN graduate as of March 31, 2007, was brought to the attention of CHED (on April 11) and I tried to resolve it with the school vice president (on April 16), they retaliated by putting a hold on her records — to prevent her not only from taking the board exam, but also from receiving her earned diploma and TOR.
“I am specifically seeking the following:
“(1) A legislative solution could be found to require schools to release TORs and other transcripts within ten days of a student meeting all the financial and academic requirements. This will stop the situation from ever happening to another student, regardless of their course.
“(2) In order to rectify the injustice to those graduates of DMC who wish to take the June exam, their TORs must be released immediately to those of them who have met the financial and academic requirements. Put an end to the schools handpicking the graduate-examinees, which alters the statistics and doesn’t give a true picture of how the school performed its job of training the student.
“(3) With respect to Ms Nesnia, I seek an advocate to assist her in resolving the punitive action the school has undertaken. Ms Nesnia lives in a nipa hut with eight family members. She is the only hope of her family for a better future. Should we let students who speak out on these issues have their reputations ruined? She can be reached at 0915-2612380.
“Thanks for your time and consideration — Prof. Darren Smith, 0920-5895931.”
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The letter explains itself. CHED and PRC should take action.
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E-mail: [email protected]
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