Schools ask CHED to defer memo for new nursing curriculum

MANILA, Philippines - School representatives on Thursday called on the Commission on Higher Education to scrap its memorandum order no. 5, the directive that imposes a new curriculum for nursing schools. In a press conference, the leaders of the largest consortium of private colleges and universities in the Philippines and the umbrella organization of five educational associations described the CHED order as "disastrous" and called on the government agency to defer the implementation of its order. The group also lashed out at CHED for its unilateral decision to add more subjects to the nursing curriculum. Fr. Rod Salazar, Jr. SVD, COCOPEA chair and president of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) said that he already sent a letter to CHED chair Romulo Neri requesting for the immediate suspension of the new curriculum. Should CHED refuse to heed their plea, he said the association will explore all possible legal remedies to halt its implementation. He said they might even ask Pres. Arroyo to intervene on the matter. According to Salazar, the schools reject the implementation of CMO 5 due to several reasons: The first, he said, was that no public hearings were conducted by CHED. “This is in violation of CHED’s mandate that the recommendations of the agency’s panel of experts is subject to public hearing. Due process was not clearly observed," Salazar said. Second, he said that the decision will unduly burden nursing students as they will have to endure more than 28 additional units which would also mean an additional three summers of schooling. “In effect, what is being presented as a four-year course actually runs to five years," he said. The third reason, he said, was that the required learning experience (RLE) would be increased by 561 hours or 11 units from the present 2,142 hours. “Considering the great difficulties of finding suitable hospitals and places for the RLE, the increase logistical problem of schools, under the old nursing curriculum, there are already NOT ENOUGH hospitals for the required clinical hours,"he said. “This seems untimely when the whole country is reeling from other equally pressing problems," Salazar said, referring to it as the fourth reason. Another reason for their opposition, Salazar said, was that the new curriculum adds nursing subjects on the first two years, replacing General education subjects. “This will break 2-year General Course and will force higher educational institutions to terminate contracts of their faculty. This is also not good for about 50 percent of the first year nursing students who usually decide to shift to another course on the third year," he claimed. The group dubbed the new set of guidelines for the nursing curriculum as "disastrous''. "Legally speaking, there is a defect in implementing the new proposed policies since it did not go through a genuine public hearing. We are appealing to CHED to suspend the implementation until we have considered an in depth and at length how we can truly improve the quantity and quality of the nurses we educate,'' said Salazar. Salazar said there is also a possibility that the nursing enrollees in private colleges will dwindle with the new CHED proposed policies. "We have barely two months to go before the Academic Year will start and we, as heads of our respective institutions and educational associations, feel that the implications of the proposed changes in curriculum are too heavy for our educational system to implement this soon,'' said Salazar. For his part, Fr. Joel Tabora SJ, CEAP regional director and president of the Ateneo de Naga also expressed opposition to the plan. "It is a disastrous policy. It will make us choppy and will force students to drop out and to corrupt,''he said. Tabora said that instead of the usual 79 units taken up by first year nursing students, the new guidelines will require students to take up 93 units in 2,632 hours. - GMANews.TV