By Gigi Mu?oz David

THE Commission on Higher Education is revising the nursing curriculum to do away with the services of review centers, which have mushroomed to a little more than 500 nationwide.

The plan is to eventually have a five-year nursing course but it will still be a four-year curriculum this school year 2009-2010, Chairman Emmanuel Angeles said.

Reforms will include weeding out unnecessary subjects and the integration of a review program into the nursing course?s final year.

?We are not adding another year to the current nursing curriculum; rather, we are updating the program to make it more responsive to the needs of the students,? Angeles said.

A way to rationalize the curriculum is to integrate the review program into the course, Angeles said. ?This way the parents will be able to save money instead of paying expensive review centers that charge from P12,000 to P18,000 for three to six months of study.?

?The cost is almost the same when another year is added to a four-year curriculum. Yet, in the proposed curriculum, students need not attend courses in review centers which sometimes charged exorbitant fees to prepare for their licensure exams. A review course will be incorporated in the curriculum,? Angeles claimed.

Of 519 review centers nationwide, only 44 are for nursing, and four are based in Metro Manila. ?Parents are already paying for a five-year nursing program including the review yet less than 50 percent [of nursing graduates] pass the licensure test,? Angeles said.

Angeles echoed the requests of parents and students by asking higher education institutions not to increase tuition this year.

?May we seek your institution?s support by implementing a ?No Tuition and Other Fee Increase? policy for school year 2009-2010. This will surely help Filipino families cope with the economic crisis we are experiencing at this time,? Angeles said in a formal memorandum sent to schools.

Angeles earlier said a 10+2+3 scheme in the education system will equip students with the skills necessary to be competitive both in the local and international job market.

After completing the 10-year basic education curriculum?six years of primary and four years of secondary education?students may opt to go to technical schools or take a two-year pre-university program before finally pursuing a three-year specialization course.

CHED has already conducted public hearings and consultations for the new scheme in seven regions (Region 1, 3, Cordillera Administrative Region, 12, 6, 7 and 9) since the start of the year.

Last week, CHED met with officials from Region 10 and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. ?They are supportive of our curricular reforms,? Angeles said.