MANILA - Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Thursday said he was only proposing to the Professional Regulation Commission to study the scrapping of licensure exams.

Bello said the idea had come to him during a webinar with the Philippine Board of Nursing and the Philippine Nurse Association.

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"Four years of studying and preparing for your profession dadaan ka rin ng napakaraming exam. 'Yung accredited school bibigyan ka ba ng diploma yan kung 'di ka dumaan sa masusing pagsusuri," he told ANC's Headstart.

(In four years of studying and preparing for your profession, you will go through many exams. The accredited school won't give you a diploma unless you didn't go through a rigorous evaluation.)

"The plight of these nurses, they come from middle income group, 'di naman ito mga mayayaman na (they're not wealthy that) they can afford to take another exam."

The labor chief said the same goes for lawyers, engineers and other professionals.

"Sa’kin (For me), I’d rather trust the product of an 8-year course than 1 day of examination," he said.

"I'm not proposing to scrap, I'm proposing especially to the, to Philippine Nurses Association and Board of Nursing to study and that applies to others, Board of Engineering. Pagaralan nilang mabuti (Just look into this carefully)," he added.

The nursing licensure examination was conducted last Friday and Saturday in Metro Manila and all regional offices, according to the PRC.

Results are expected to be released "in 10 to 20 working days or longer, after the last day of board exams," it said.

Government last month raised to 6,500 from an initial 5,000 its deployment cap on health workers following their appeal.

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