Six Mindanao schools ordered to stop bad nursing courses

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—The Commission on Higher Education has ordered at least six schools in Southern Mindanao to stop offering nursing courses effective June due to the mediocre performance of their graduates in recent Nursing Board exams, among others reasons.

Raul Alvarez, Jr., CHEd 11 director, told reporters here Wednesday that the six schools, which he would not identify except to say that most of them are  in the city, could not satisfy the 30 percent passing rate requirement that CHEd had set for nursing schools.

Alvarez said another reason that CHEd ordered them to stop offering nursing was “non-compliance with CHEd rules” but he would not say what these rules were.

He said one of the schools has filed for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO).

Alvarez said that in Southern Mindanao alone, at least 10 schools have already stopped offering the course due to “poor compliance with the nursing board-required passing rate or other problems with CHEd,” either voluntarily or in compliance with CHEd’s closure order.

He said CHEd also issued a memorandum to some 30 other schools offering nursing in Southern Mindanao because their passing percentage was lower than what was required.

Meanwhile, Alvarez said CHEd would take legal action  against schools that will increase tuition  this year even when they had not submitted a letter of intent to do so.

CHEd had required private schools to submit the letter not later than February 28 but in Southern Mindanao, only 30 out of the 92 private schools had done so thus far, he said.

CHEd has assumed that the 62 schools, which had not submitted letters of intent, will not increase their tuition or other fees in June but if they do, they would be haled to court, he said.