House leader seeks inquiry into possibility of assigning one nurse for every public school

A House leader is seeking an inquiry into the possibility of appointing one nurse for every public school to provide accessible health care to some 17 million students enrolled in public schools nationwide and provide jobs to some of the 221,000 unemployed nurses in the country.

Deputy Speaker Carlos Padilla sought the inquiry through House Resolution 1283 which directs the House Committee on Basic Education to look into the possibility of employing one school nurse for every public school in the country.

“Assigning a nurse to every public school in the country will be a step towards providing accessible health care to our children and will offer opportunities for gainful employment to our nurses,” said Padilla, representative of the Lone District of Nueva Vizcaya.

Citing data from the Department of Labor and Employment, Padilla said the number of Nursing Board Exam passers from 2001 to 2011 was about 421,000 with only about 200,000 nurses employed here and abroad.

“This therefore brings to 221,000 the number of unemployed nurses in the country,” he said.

Meanwhile, Padilla said the Philippine Statistics Agency stated there are about 17 million students enrolled in public schools all over the country during the school year 2011 to 2012.

Padilla said under the 2013 Rationalization Program of the Department of Education (DepEd), certain measures were instituted “in light of long-term reforms needed in the education sector notwithstanding fast-changing demands of the local and global environment.”

He said Phase 1 of the said rationalization program includes the mandate, functions and proposed organizational structures for the agency while Phase 11 includes the placement of employees into the new staffing pattern.

Pursuant to the DepEd Rationalization Program, Padilla said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) approved a new staffing pattern for Schools Division Offices, which includes Nurse 11 with Salary Grade 15, under the School Health and Nutrition Category.

“The approved staffing pattern issued by the DBM provides only a certain number of Nurse 11 items to each School Division classification, namely: Very Large Schools Division, 11 positions; Large School Division, seven position; Medium Schools Division, one or two positions; and Small Schools Division, one or none,” said Padilla.

Padilla said in the Quezon City Schools Division, for example, from the original 13 items for Public Health Nurse before the approved Rationalization Program, six items were abolished, reducing the number of Nurse 11 items to only seven.