The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) is the biggest organized group of Catholic schools in the country, with about 1,252members. Instituted in 1941, the institution antedates the creation of the Episcopal commission, which now carries it under its wing.
Commission on Higher Education En Banc (CEB)
Chairman Romulo L. Neri
Dr. Nenalyn P. Defensor Dr. Saturnino M. Ocampo, Jr.
Dr. Nona S. Ricafort Dr. Hadja Luningning Misuarez-Umar
Re: Request for Suspension of Implementation
of New Proposed Policies and Standards
for Bachelor of Science in Nursing Curriculum
Your Excellencies:
We, the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) are gathered in a meeting today, Friday, April 18, 2008, at the Rembrandt Hotel in Quezon City. Among the things we have discussed is the impending implementation of the new set of policies and standards for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing curriculum.
We are aware that the matter has been studied by the Technical Committee for Nursing Education (TCNE), and that some meetings have been done in different parts of the country at which our college deans and nursing faculty and other stakeholders were present and were allowed their say. Thus, we understand that a possible executive conclusion maybe that the proposal is ready for implementation for the new Academic Year 2008-2009 which is about to begin. We feel, however, that a wider public consultation should have been done on a matter as important as this. We also believe that CMO No. 5, s. 2008, needs further clarification.
It is for this reason that we, the COCOPEA, have called for this urgent meeting to have a second look at the situation. And we have decided to ask the honourable Commission on Education en banc to please suspend the implementation of the proposed new set of guidelines for the Nursing curriculum, until further and deeper study is made. We have barely two months to go before the new Academic Year will start and we, as heads of our respective institutions and educational associations, feel that the implications of the proposed changes in the curriculum are too heavy for our educational system to implement this soon.
Quality and quantity, we understand, are, in the end, the main reasons for the proposed change: Because of the world-wide demand for our nurses, we feel we need to produce the quantity of nursing graduates needed. Because we consider a five-year curriculum too long, we come up with a four-year one. Because of the reduction in the length of the course, the desired academic units are lumped up into four years, and so the result is a bloated curriculum with so many academic units and related learnig experience hours. In this configuration of quantity, we fear that quality is compromised.
We are with you and the whole Philippine nation in wanting, among other things, to produce the number of nurses needed by our country and the world. Let us be one in desiring that the quality of those nurses become our paramount consideration.
We shall respect whatever action each one takes in response to the individual and communal call of conscience. Those in our member schools ready to march to decry corruption have the respect and support of our CEAP National Board of Directors. Those who choose to pray and reflect in quiet have the same.
May we consider the educational and pedagogical effect of lumping so much desired knowledge into four years. May we realize the implication of having our students go through almost eight hours a dayof classes or clinical practice. May we see what our desired requirements would mean for the faculty that would be needed and the hospitals that would be expected to absorb the nursing students. And we must consider, overall, the kind of nurses we will eventually produce after they have gone through such a system.
Thus, indeed, we need to match the quality we desire with the quantity of class hours, hospitals and hospital hours, and nursing faculty that we have in our country. Add to this consideration the cost of the new program, and we will the situation must truly give us pause.
We do respect the Honourable Commission en banc and the Technical Committee for Nursing Education and our deans and faculty and all who have been involved in the consultations on the matter.
Still, we ask Your Excellencies to please suspend the implementation of the proposed curriculum for the new Academic Year, until we have considered in depth and at length how we can truly improve the quantity and quality of the nurses we educate.
Thank you.
NATIONAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA)
CEAP President
COCOPEA Chair
SIGNED:
| DR. DANIEL D. DIAL |
DR. GONZALO T. DUQUE |
| ACSU President |
PACU President |
| |
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| DR. JOSE PAULO CAMPOS |
MR. CONSTANCIO SIA |
| PAPSCU President |
TEVSAPHIL President |
| |
|
| MSGR. GERARDO O. SANTOS |
SR. TERESITA BAYONA, SPC |
| CEAP Vice-President |
CEAP Director-at-Large |
| |
|
| MS. MARILYN MUTUC |
FR. ANTONIO MORENO, SJ |
| ACSCU Secretary |
CEAP Region 9 Director |
| |
|
| DR. PATRICIO C. DIONIO |
DR. EMILY D. DE LEON |
| ACSCU Executive Director |
PACU 1ST Vice-President |
| |
|
| DR. RICARDO P. PAMA |
DR. LOURDES A. SESE |
| PACU 2nd Vice-President |
PAPSCU 2nd Vice-President |
| |
|
| ATTY. JOSEPH NOEL ESTRADA |
| PAPSCU Executive Director |
| |
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| DR. HORACIO MONTEFRIO |
DR. CELESTE A. DIMACULANGAN |
| PAPSCU Director |
Dean, Graduate School Program |
| |
School of Nursing, Philippine Women University |
| |
|
| MS. MARJORIE G. MENDENILLA |
MARIETTA R. FABROS |
| TEVSAPHIL Executive Director |
Acting Dean, School of Nursing |
| |
Philippine Women University |
| |
|
| MELINDA F. ABALOS |
DINA D. GALANG |
| Registrar, Manila Adventist |
Dean College of Nursing |
| Medical Center & Colleges |
Adventist University of the Philippines |
| |
|
| DR. OFELIA M. OSORIO |
DR. LYDIA B. ECHAUZ |
| Dean College of Nursing |
PACU Director |
| Manila Adventist Medical Center & Colleges |
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