This was the decision announced by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) over the alleged leakage of the June 2006 Nurses Licensure Examination (NLE) , allowing examinees who are willing to retake the exams in December to avoid the ‘’stigma’’ that is being associated with the recent batch of examinees.

“We will allow a retake but will not impose it upon those who are not willing , provided they will execute a waiver. They will not choose the higher grade, only take the next grade as their grade,” PRC Commissioner Avelina dela told participants of the dialogue and consultative meeting with deans and other nursing leaders at the PRC premises yesterday.

PRC chairperson Leonor Rosero stressed that the PRC is pursuing the registration of the board passers, and consequently, the oathtaking, amid the cheating controversy.

“We will go on with the oathtaking. Those who failed the exams will be allowed to take it again without any record of failure,” she said.

An alleged leak on the test questions on the recent NLE has caused mixed reactions from the education sector, students and even some government officials.

A review center was implicated to have been the source of the leakage but the review center denied the allegations. Previous reports said that the leaked questions came from the manuscripts of two members of the board of nursing (BoN).

A total of 42,006 nursing graduates took the exam last June 11 and 12 and 17, 821 passed it.

Four members of the BoN have recently tendered their resignations including chairman Eufemia Octaviano and members Remedios L. Fernandez, Letty G. Kwan, Estelita T. Galutira. Two BoN members, Virginia Madeja and Anesia Dionisio who were implicated in the said leakage were earlier asked by PRC to go on a leave of absence. Subsequently, PRC has suspended all their monthly honoraria and had filed administrative charges against them.

Dela Rea said two nursing board members submitted their intention to vacate their posts only last Friday However, PRC has not yet accepted their resignations. “If we accept their resignation, we might lose our hold on them. How can we penalize them then?” she said.

Rosero hits back at those who are asking for the resignation of PRC officials.

“Sino naman ang ipapalit samin? Magagalit naman ang ibang propesyon pagnagresign kami since nursing is just one of the 42 professions that we take care of. Isa pa, hindi galing sa PRC ang leakage,” Rosero said.

Dela Rea suggested that legislators must devise regulations on test review centers compelling them to submit names of their reviewees and to make review classes a part of the curriculum before the graduation of students. The proposal also included the hiring of test items writers on a part-time of fulltime basis.