June 2006 Examination Controversy

8/2/2019 June 2006 Examination Controversy

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JUNE 2006 EXAMINATION CONTROVERSY

The controversy stemmed from the complaint of 92 examinees led by Rachelle Cyndi

Ong Erfe, a graduate of Saint Louis University in Baguio City, alleging leakage of questions in

two sections of the nursing board examination. The complainants asked the Professional

Regulation Commission to nullify the affected sections to preserve the integrity of the licensure

examination. The 92 complainants were later joined by 425 intervenors. Erfe told the Senate

and House of Representatives that on both days of the exam, she saw other examinees

wearing white jackets with R.A. Gapuz Review Center printed on the back reading photocopies

of what she would later discover were leaked questions from the review center.

The controversy triggered a debate on whether or not all the 42,000 examinees should

retake the licensure test to maintain its integrity and standard. The Professional Regulation

Commission (PRC) eventually reversed its earlier pronouncements that there was no cheating

when it announced that two BoN members leaked questions. According to one of the two

members who were removed for negligence, she just inadvertently left copies in a Photocopy

shop near the PRC-Manila office where she was photocopying her 500 questions. Others

charged that the BoN members were bribed by the review centers to provide them with copies

of their questions and answers. U.S. based media coverage of this scandal was sparse and little

follow-up occurred. The test scandal was covered in depth in at least one nursing magazine, the

article "A Breach of Integrity" by Genevive M. Clavreul, RN. Ph.D. was published in November

2006.

In order to become eligible for a VisaScreen Certificate, CGFNS has required that a

June 2006 passer must first re-take and pass, with a score of 75 percent or better, the special

voluntary examination covering the subject matter of Tests 3 and 5. Passage of the NCLEX or

the CGFNS Examination by any passer of the compromised June 2006 PRC examination will
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=R.A._Gapuz_Review_Center&action=edit&redlink=1http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=R.A._Gapuz_Review_Center&action=edit&redlink=1


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not substitute for the requirement that he or she take the special voluntary examination

authorized by Executive Order 609 issued by the Philippine Government on March 12, 2007.[5]

Some 42,000 students sat the nursing examination last year but only about 17,000

passed. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has since ordered all 17,000 to re-take the exams,

sparking an uproar from nurses who denied any involvement in wrongdoing. A special review

conducted by the Department of Labor and Employment in coordination with Centers of

Excellence Nursing Schools provided for voluntary special review classes in preparation to the

voluntary retake of the equivalent of Tests III and V of the June 2006 Board of Nursing

Examination pursuant to Executive Order No. 609, series of 2007 from March 21 to April 4,

2007. The Special Review refers to the series of classes covering the topics included in Tests III

and V of the June 2006 of Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE). This is offered exclusively on

a voluntary basis to all nurses licensed under the June 2006 NLE. The voluntary examination

will not affect the validity of licenses issued. It is offered merely to enhance employability of

successful examinees to qualify for the CGFNS VisaScreen Certificate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Nursing_Licensure_Exam#cite_note-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Nursing_Licensure_Exam#cite_note-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Nursing_Licensure_Exam#cite_note-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Macapagal-Arroyohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Labor_and_Employmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Labor_and_Employmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Macapagal-Arroyohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Nursing_Licensure_Exam#cite_note-4


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REACTION

Many nursing graduates who passed the 2006 NLE exams had still been having trouble

looking for jobs because of the failure of the government to satisfactorily resolve the scandal

made by the leak of the exam questions. The June 2006 NLE leakage scandal did not only

inflict undue burden on the affected examinees who had to take the exams again but it has

brought a tainted integrity and cast doubts on the capacity or competency of the entire

Philippine nursing industry, in which for so many years has sought to prove to the world that our

country can produce competent, reliable and trustworthy health care professionals.

With this event or scandal that happened several resolutions could be made. One is of

the point of anguish by the parents who had worked their hardest to earn an adequate income

to have their child be enrolled in the best nursing training schools. Parents who would sacrifice

their health for the progress of their child. Second is on the integrity of a Filipino Nursing

student. Could it be that the Nursing students today had degraded to its lowest point that some

could resolve to cheating just to pass the exam or were they been pressured by their peers and

in order for them to have positive gain, they take the easy way out. And lastly is on the Nursing

education that our country offers, does the persons involved in honing the capacity of the

student intellectually equip enough and could they be considered good or just passive teachers.

Whatever, it may be these three

In reality, we, Filipinos are great workers, or busy bodies. Other countries considers us

to have a great amount of patience, very diligent and hardworking, that is why a lot other

nationalities envies us. However, with this scandal turning out, this event had greatly affected

the integrity of foreign licensing systems most especially in evaluating candidates under the US

immigration law. Filipino nurses could no longer give an impeccable overview to most foreign

countries. This had gravely affected the economic capacity of our country and a lot of Filipino


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nurses, lay jobless. That is why we need to act up fast enough, prove them wrong that the

mistake of one could not sum up to the goodness of ever and dignity of everybody. Honesty is

still the best policy, it still is and it also leads us to progress.


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June 2006 Examination Controversy

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