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Friday, March 29, 2024

Bello plan to scrap board exams bucked

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Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Thursday said the proposal of Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III to scrap licensure exams for nurses and other professionals needs further study.

Bello floated the idea of doing away with licensure exams due to the high financial costs of reviewing for and taking the boards.

He said graduating from a Commission on Higher Education-accredited institution should be enough.

Bello, however, later clarified that he only wants the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) and Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) to look into licensure exams and not scrap them altogether.

Duque said Bello has to convince Congress “to amend the Nursing Act and PRC law.”

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“That needs further study as there are laws that require professionals to pass board exams prior to issuance of a license,” he added.

Bello also said that the scrapping of licensure exams might be his “pet bill” if he decides to run for Congress.

The PNA had rejected Bello’s proposal, stressing that the competency of health professionals must be ensured as they have people’s lives in their hands.

PNA national president Melbert Reyes said the Board of Nursing also rejected the proposal immediately.

“The quality and our level will go down if we don’t have board exams,” Reyes said, adding that board exams serve as a check and balance to the quality of education.

Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo has also opposed the abolition of the Bar exams for lawyers.

Bello on Thursday said he was only proposing to the Professional Regulation Commission to study the scrapping of licensure exams.

Bello said the idea came to him during a webinar with the Philippine Board of Nursing and the Philippine Nurse Association.

“In four years of studying and preparing for your profession, you will go through many exams. The accredited school won’t give you a diploma unless you didn’t go through a rigorous evaluation,” he said in Filipino.

“The plight of these nurses, they come from a middle income group. They’re not so wealthy they can afford to take another exam,” he added.

The labor chief said the same goes for lawyers, engineers, and other professionals.

“I’d rather trust the product of an eight-year course than one day of examination,” he said.

The nursing licensure examination was conducted Friday and Saturday last week in Metro Manila and all regional offices, the PRC said.

Results are expected to be released in 10 to 20 working days or longer, after the last day of board exams, it said.

Senator Joel Villanueva said scrapping board exams would put Filipino professionals at a disadvantage.

Villanueva, chairman of the Senate labor committee, said the country’s professional licensure system should remain, despite the struggles of the PRC to hold these certification tests the past year due to the pandemic.

He noted that such assessments boost the credibility of Filipino professionals here and around the world.

“Despite our disappointment with how the PRC has been failing our graduates with the way they’ve postponed and pushed back scheduled board exams since last year, it is very clear to us that the professional certification exams such as the various board exams must remain,” Villanueva said.

“It is the final ‘quality control’ check before we allow graduates to practice a profession which [affects] the lives of people—like physicians—or safety of buildings, like engineers. If tech-voc graduates, like mechanics who fix cars, require TESDA certification, how much more for doctors who will repair hearts?”

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