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Despite
the issuance of the new guidelines for the nursing
curriculum, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) on
Tuesday disclosed that students still prefer to take up
the course even if it would mean more burden for both
students and their parents.
The very
main reason, CHED said why students still want to take
up nursing despite its costly tuition, is the
opportunity to work abroad.
CHED
data showed that 497,214 of the total 2.8 million
college students trooped to nursing schools when classes
at the tertiary level opened yesterday. The figure is
considerably higher by 70,595 students from last year’s
426,619.
The
other courses with high enrollees are hotel and
restaurant management with 134,688 and computer science
with 100,760.
The
lowest number of enrollees is the business
administration course.
The data
also indicated that 817,688 students attended other
baccalaureate programs and 353,840 in prebaccalaureate,
postbaccalaureate, master’s and doctoral programs.
While
the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority
had reported that 17,000 health professionals, including
nurses, would be needed this year alone in Europe and
the United States, the demand will continue to grow even
beyond 2010.
Earlier,
CHED approved a new set of guidelines for the nursing
curriculum, which college administrators believed to
cause more harm than good to students.
CHED
issued Memorandum Order (CMO) 5, which mandates nursing
schools to increase the number of units of the BS
Nursing curriculum to improve the passing rate of
nursing graduates. The memo was released on May 14, a
few more weeks before the school opening.
The
Coordinating Council of Private Educational Association
(Cocopea), the largest consortium of private colleges
and universities in the Philippines and the umbrella
organization of five educational associations, however,
asked CHED to suspend its implementation and suggested
that consultations should be made with all stakeholders
concerned.
Cocopea
said the schools reject the implementation of CMO 5.
Their reasons include: no public hearing was conducted
by CHED; a new nursing curriculum will unduly burden
nursing students as they will have to endure more than
28 additional units, plus the summer classes; the
required learning experience increased by 561 hours or
11 units from the present 2,142 hours; and imposition of
additional nursing subjects in the first two years,
replacing General Education subjects, among others.
They
also projected that nursing enrollees in private
colleges will dwindle with the new CHED proposed
policies.
Earlier,
a regional trial court denied a petition for a temporary
restraining order against the CHED over the latter’s
recent memorandum revising policies and standards for a
BS Nursing degree. |
