Pagadian city testing center for nursing licensure exam
PIA Press Release - 2009/05/21
Pagadian City now testing center for Nursing Licensure Exam Zamboanga City (21 May 2009) -- "After several decades of waiting, Pagadian City has finally been included as a testing center for Nursing Licensure Exam," thus declared City Mayor Samuel S. Co in his radio program at DXBZ Radyo Bagting dubbed "Mayor's Report", aired every Wednesday.
Co was extremely happy when the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) approved the request of the City Government to hold the examination for the Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE) in less than a month from now.
"Nursing graduates won't have to worry about finding and getting to a test location somewhere else in Region 9," Co said adding that "it is the ideal place for the examinees considering its proximity from the cities and neighboring places in the region."
"The examinees are given easy access in taking the exams and can now save time, money and effort," Co explained. The chief executive has observed that during board exams, they used to go to far cities like Cebu, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga which according to them are "disadvantageous" because they will spend money for their overnight stay in lodging houses, food and transportation fare.
Sol Coriba, fresh graduate from Medina College, Ozamis City was so elated that Pagadian City is now the new testing center for NLE exam. She said the proximity of the testing center from Ozamis benefited her. Filing the NLE exam became easy for her despite the delay in the release of her credentials. "It helped me a lot," Coriba said, as she was able to catch up with the deadline set last April 17.
Special Collection Officer Margarita I. Sahipa, said from the time PRC has transferred to Pagadian City and became fully operational on February 5, 2006, it continued to administer tests for the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) in the city for two consecutive times on September 28, 2008 and April 5, 2009 respectively. Now, on June 6 & 7, another test will be administered for the NLE.
The Chief Executive said, being a new testing center for both LET and NLE are good benefits that Pagadian City has reaped from being the new regional center in Region IX after it was transferred from Zamboanga City 3 years ago.
It has also become a big boost to the tourism industry in the city.
"Hotels, lodging houses and restaurants will be benefited too", he said, as "the number of occupants in hotels and lodging houses will increase and many of the examinees will patronize our restaurants and eateries."
Sahipa explained there were 636 applicants who have filed their application including the first-timers and repeaters from Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur and its neighboring cities and provinces.
It can be recalled that conduct of the NLE exams was due to the approved Sangguniang Panlungsod Resolution No. 0606 series 2008, 'a resolution requesting the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) to consider the inclusion of Pagadian City as one of the Commission's testing centers for the Nursing Licensure Examinations in the calendar year 2009 and onward.'
The present administration believes that Pagadian City - being the Regional Center of Zamboanga Peninsula Region, has available local facilities and amenities to offer and is an ideal venue for the conduct of examinations and can accommodate reasonable number of examinees.
With the existence of Nursing Schools & Colleges in the city, the P40-million Zamboanga del Sur Medical Center established by the Provincial government, the first-ever Oath taking Ceremony of Nurses held in Alindahaw Hotel on April 30, and the first NLE exam in St. Columban College on June 6-7, the chief executive is very optimistic that Pagadian City will soon to be the "Nursing education capital in the world".
This page copied from: PIA.gov Press Release