Investigate Board Exam Leakage, Baguio-based Nursing Hopefuls Urge PRC

Ninety-two Baguio City-based examinees stressed that some of those who took the exam managed to finish two sets of questions in just “more or less 30 minutes” because they knew the questions beforehand. This is the reason for their complaint before the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC).

BY ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat

BAGUIO CITY — Ninety-two examinees of the Nurses Licensure Examination here (246 kms from Manila) filed a complaint in the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) demanding the creation of an independent committee to investigate the leakage of two sets of examination materials during the examination on June 11 to 12.

They accused members of the Board of Nursing and the Ray A. Gapuz Review Center  (Gapuz) for being involved in the leakage. “Many examinees who wore jacket marked with Gapuz brought with them some papers in the examination room and finished Set III of the exam held on June 11 and Set V held on June 12 in more or less 30 minutes,” claimed one examinee.

The complaint filed in the PRC on June 21 by 92 examinees claimed that several questions or problems contained in the 18-page handwritten leakage notes were identical to those that were asked in the recent examinations.

Leaking the questions

One of the complainants narrated that an examinee from Gapuz told her that the materials were given by the review center during the last hours of June 10.

“We read the material. Many of the questions in Set V of our examination were in it. What was more telling was that it used the same names and situations found in the actual board exams,” she said in her affidavit.

Another complainant said that a Gapuz reviewee handed her a material before the Set V exam was to begin on June 12. The Gapuz reviewee allegedly wrote on the material which read, “Basahin mo ‘yan. Baka sakaling reliable ‘yan kasi ‘yung sa amin ng Gapuz para sa Set III, lumabas talaga kahapon.” (Read that. It might be reliable because the one given to us by Gapuz for Set III really came out yesterday.)

Initially scanning the materials before the proctor announced the start of Set V exams, she was amazed to see that the examination questions, including the characters, were the same. With other examinees, they reviewed the Gapuz review materials and noticed most came out in the Set V exam.

Northern Dispatch learned that in the evening of June 10, Gapuz representatives reproduced 2,800 of the18-page handwritten materials on Bonifacio Street near the Saint Louis University. These representatives allegedly requested that materials be ready by 9:00 p.m. that same day.

In a press conference it called this week, Gapuz denied the allegations.

Remedies

Lawyer Kissack Gabaen, counsel for the complainants, claimed that the leakage is one of the worst in the history of the nursing board exams nationwide. He added that his clients are asking that Sets III and V of the board examination be invalidated and the scores of the examinees be recomputed without these.

He added that the complainants are asking the PRC to initiate proceedings to blacklist Gapuz if found culpability and to revoke the professional licenses of those involved in the leakage.

Meanwhile, the Associations of the Deans of Nursing Schools of Northern Luzon joined the press conference held on June 24 by the complainants and their lawyers at the Philippine Nursing Association (PNA) office in this city. The deans will join the complainants as intervenors of the petition.

Baguio City was one of the testing centers in the country for the recent nursing board exam. Bulatlat

© 2006 Bulatlat ■  Alipato Media Center

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