Why India got 5 NCELX Centers while Phili does not have any ?

[NYrnTX]

As regular visitors of this wondeful forum know, NCSBN has recently announced its decision to open more testing centers in foreign countries. Though its a welcome act by NCSBN to help International nurses to complete NCLEX in their own countries (and to escape them from being at the mercy of pathetic, sub-standard CGFNS), it may be surprising to note that Philii left out.

Everyone would agree hands down that Philippines and India are the two countries that deserve NCLEX test centers. Also, since CGFNS exam is offered in both these countries, it may sound cruel that no NCLEX centers are available in Phili.

No, it is not that NCSBN has singled out Phili for punishment. As a matter of fact, having experienced the wonderful skills of Philippino nurses, who would dare to single out Phili ? Some might think that its an issue ofs security/fraud. Both India and Phili are more or less the same on these areas.

I think Infrastructure is the villain here. To be precise, Infrastructure to conduct NCLEX exam. As we know, NCLEX is not conducted directly by NCSBN. NCSBN contracted PearsonVue to conduct NCLEX exam. Also, not all PearsonVue centers are allowed to conduct NCLEX exam. Only select few.

PearsonVuee centres conduct many exams for many vendors. PearsonVue and Prometric are the 'agents' who conduct certification exams for most of the technology giants like Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, HP, IBM etc. Since India has a strong presense of technology (software) professionals, many PearsonVue centres are present in India. They were actually franchised with the tech guys in mind. But, that has become a boon for Indian Nurses now. Hyderabad, Madras, Bangalore and Delhi are the IT hubs in India and henceforth they have many PearsonVue centres in each of these places. Since there are many, it is easier to find atleast one center in each of these cities that meets the toughest standards that are required to conduct NCLEX exam.

Also, as discussed in the forum, Kerala, another southeren state in India produces most of the Indian nurses but there is no NCLEX center there. Again, what mentioned above answers that as well. Kerala is not a major IT force in India and henceforth that state may not have (m)any PearsonVue centres to conduct NCLEX exam.

Why CGFNS is available in both these countries ? CGFNS is different than NCLEX. CGFNS directly administers that exam and it can conduct that exam anywhere it want to..Hotel, School, Auditorium, Parish Hall, Library, stadium or whatever. All it requires is, some CG officials fly down to the venue.

Having said that, I do believe there will be NCLEX centers in Phili in the near future. The moment PearsonVue recognises that NCLEX would be a major business in Phili, many centers will open there too and the exam will be available. Also, since philippino nurses are highly skilled professional nurses, NCSBN may 'invent' some other means to offer the exam there..