Finish the
leakage problem first

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The government has announced that it will scrutinize the performance of nursing schools in the country and disclose their names to the public to discourage students from enrolling in them.

It sounds like a good move, considering the way nursing schools have been sprouting around the country. The demand for nurses abroad, and the much bigger renumeration they can expect has lured a very big percentage of high school graduates in the past few years to choose the course.

But the increased number of students and the possibility of cashing in on the fees they will pay has enticed many schools to include a nursing department or college among their offerings. Unfortunately, some of them go into it without the proper preparations and sometimes even without competent staff.

This could also be the reason why some of them resort to cheating, that is, by availing of dishonest methods, like using foul means to get copies of the questions to feed their candidates for the examinations. This is what may have happened in the latest case where evidence has been gathered, proving that, indeed, there was leak of the questions, and that it must have benefited students who were reviewing at the particular centers involved. The case of the June, 2006 nursing board examination has not yet been resolved, so far. That is why we say that, while it is a good move to zero in on the substandard nursing schools and review centers, our officials should first focus on the problem of the examinees who, up to this time, do not know their fate yet.

There has already been so much confusion, flip-flopping and speculations on the case that it is only just and fair that the anxious students and their parents are put out of their agony. Finish this one first, and then run after those substandard ones who are no better than diploma mills later.*