Angelite Nurses

PRC hopes it brings closure to leak scandal

By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 10:56pm (Mla time) 08/26/2007

MANILA, Philippines--(UPDATE) More than two months after some 80,000 nursing graduates took the June 2007 licensure exams, the results are out, chairperson Leonor Rosero-Tripon of the Professional Regulation Commission told INQUIRER.net in a phone interview Sunday.

She said the passing rate for first-time takers, repeaters, and voluntary examinees is 48.18 percent or a total of 31,275 of the 64,909; for those who re-took the exam as per a decision of the Court of Appeals, 73.8 percent or a total of the 248 of the 336; and for those who re-took tests 3 and 5 as per a decision by the United States’ Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS), 68.9 percent of some 13,000.

“This brings a closure” to the leakage scandal of the June 2006 nursing board exams, she said.

Aside from CGFNS observers who monitored the exam preparations and the exam proper, agents of the National Bureau of Investigation were with the members of the Board of Nursing and the 17 PRC staff all throughout the process, Tripon said.

She noted that the BoN members and the PRC staff involved in the June 2007 nursing board exams were also placed under an 11-day quarantine to ensure that this year’s exams would be respected by all.

Last year’s exams were mired in controversy; large chunks of the exam were leaked to examinees reviewing with certain review centers. The controversy caused the Senate to launch an inquiry, led to a court case, and finally reached the US CGFNS.

Earlier, BoN member Marco Sto. Tomas said the labor department will release the results of the CGFNS examinees.

Originally posted 3:42pm