CA voids CHED closure of underperforming nursing schools

The CA said when the PNLE results for 2008, 2009 and 2010 were issued, “there was nothing left to be done but for the prejudiced HEIs to be subjected to immediate phaseout of their BS Nursing program despite the lack of prior notice”. (File Photo By Ramon FVelasquez/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0)

MANILA — The Court of Appeals (CA) nullified a directive of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) ordering the phaseout of the Bachelor of Science (BS) in Nursing Program of local schools that failed to achieve 30 percent passing average in the nursing board examinations from 2008 to 2010.

In its 12-page decision dated February 12, the appellate court’s 16th Division through Associate Justice Danton Q. Bueser granted the petition filed by the Philippine College of Health Sciences (PCHS), a Manila-based school, in connection with CHED Memorandum (CMO) No. 18, series of 2011, which imposed the phaseout of the BS Nursing Program of all higher education institutions (HEIs) with average passing percentages in the Philippine Nursing Licensure Exam (PNLE) of below 30 percent for the years 2008 to 2010.

The CHED issued the memorandum in 2011 after what it said was “a swindling and disturbing decline in the national passing percentage”, indicating that the results of the nursing board exams were at 35.25 percent, the lowest at the time from 2006.

From 2008 to 2014, PCHS’s Nursing Program had a passing average of between a high of 32 percent in 2008 to a low of 18.

77 percent in 2012.

In siding with the school and setting aside the CHED’s order, the CA said the closure was arbitrary and had deprived the school of due process since, at the time, a prior CHED order (CMO No. 14, series of 2009) provided that the implementation of the phaseout of underperforming nursing schools shall commence on 2013 and that the basis for evaluation shall be the result of PNLE for the years 2010, 2011 and 2012.

The CA said when the PNLE results for 2008, 2009 and 2010 were issued, “there was nothing left to be done but for the prejudiced HEIs to be subjected to immediate phaseout of their BS Nursing program despite the lack of prior notice”.

Sanctions, such as closures, the CA said “must be applied only to acts and events transpiring after its enactment, and not to those that occurred and were caused by persons who relied on the previous CMO and acted on the basis thereof,”

The CA added that the provisions of the enacting law afford CHED other means and resources for the betterment of nursing education in the country.

“These are avenues which CHED must first exhaust before resorting to harsh remedies. The punitive sanction of immediate phaseout of BS Nursing program in view of the circumstances is therefore considered excessive and arbitrary.” the court added.

Associate Justices Geraldine C. Fiel-Macaraig and Walter S. Ong concurred.