New CHED chief hits move to limit number of nursing students

MANILA, Philippines - The newly appointed Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairman on Thursday said the proposal of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) that seeks to limit the number of students taking up nursing is undemocratic. "We cannot say that we have to establish a ceiling. You will be curtailing the freedom of the students," CHED Chairman Emmanuel Angeles said in an interview. DOLE Undersecretary Carmelito Pineda had said he was concerned about the oversupply of nursing graduates. He said various government agencies have discussed the possibility of imposing a ceiling in the number of college students taking up nursing. Records showed that the number of nursing students increased sharply from 30,000 in 2000 to 450,000 in 2007. The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) reported that about 400,000 licensed Filipino nurses have not been hired despite the high demand for health workers abroad. However, local recruitment industry leaders claimed that they are having difficulty filling up the job orders from various countries due to lack of qualified Filipino nurses. But Angeles said that CHED would not interfere in the operations of institutions offering nursing education. CHED can only bar a school from conducting nursing courses or a student from taking up nursing is if the learning institution itself lacks the proper facilities. He said that instead of limiting the number of allowable enrollees, he would ask schools for "strict admission requirements." "Only those who truly qualify should be admitted to the nursing education," he added. Angeles said though that he would still discuss the proposal during the en banc of the higher learning agency. "There will be like a self imposed limitation by schools because if the schools and the laboratories and facilities are good for 100 students then they would just admit 100 students not 1,000. The top schools are doing that," he said. - GMANews.TV