REMAI ALEJADO
Online news contributor
PAGADIAN CITY: THIS city will soon contribute to the huge employment demand of nurses abroad with the birth of the Philippine Paramedical and Technical School (PPTS), which was formally inaugurated last July 28 with the attendance of Gov. Aurora Cerilles and 1st district Rep. Victor Yu.
Along with the two provincial officials are former Governor Enteng Cerilles, couple Engr. Berting and Dra. Zenaida Galicinao with guests from Eriworld Phils. Vice President Genevieve Cañete, Mrs. Putli Fuerte (PPTS, Las Piñas) and Board Member Baldomero Fernandez.
The nursing school, located at Enerio compound will have the chance to send at least two nursing graduates to the United States and other foreign countries in seven years, PPTS founder and chairman of the board Art Lacuesta said.
Lacuesta added that it is better to enroll in a two-year Practical Nursing course than get a bachelor equivalent to four years, if employment is a necessity.
He said that a backbone of teaching nursing students is an equipped skills laboratory. Its Pagadian campus will be named after the late mother of Gov. Aurora Cerilles.
Lacuesta compared the country’s nursing course to that of India and China wherein he said that when it comes to method of teaching, theirs is already global.
With this approach, Lacuesta was prompted to establish a paramedical and technical school in 2003 at Davao City and expanded to Cagayan de Oro, General Santos and Pagadian.
PPTS is U.S.-accredited and is the first member in the Philippines to the U.S. National League of Nursing.
The PPTS Pagadian Campus President is Junjie Fuerte while Joel Javier is its school administrator.
Its first batch composes of 25 students who all submitted to a Nursing Entrance Test (NET), a diagnostic test for English proficiency.