New CHED chairman admits low passing rate in board exams

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said it has initiated an investigation into the dismal passing rate of graduates in the different colleges and universities throughout the country who are taking different board licensure examinations given by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).

Dr. Patricia Licuanan, newly assumed CHED chair, admitted serious concern over the PRC’s observation that while the number of takers of the examinations has been increasing in the past years, the performance of graduates in the various licensure exams was worsening, in view of the increasing number of flunkers among examinees.

“It’s a matter of very serious concern,” Licuanan told The STAR in a phone interview. “We’re already investigating and looking at the track records of the different schools in the different licensure exams.”

Licuanan admitted that since she is still new in the agency, she has yet to come up with a plan of action on the matter.

“We’re discussing that. I can’t tell specifically yet what we’re going to do,” she said.

Licuanan’s predecessor at the CHED, Emmanuel Angeles, had previously talked tough against schools with low performance rating in the PRC examinations, but had largely failed to close down institutions whose graduates failed to score within the already low national passing percentage set in the 30 percentile level for several years.

All he did was issue recommendations to erring schools to close the concerned professional degree programs.

Graduates of the various professional degree programs such as nursing, accountancy, medicine, engineering, pharmacy, and many others are required to take PRC board examinations to enable them to get their professional licenses.

PRC data showed that while the number of examinees steadily rose in the past six years, the number who pass the boards continued to drop.

Based on the PRC data, a total of 1,421,464 examinees took the different licensure examinations from 2004 to 2008.

Out of this number, 903,202 flunked, posting a 36.4 percent national passing rate during the period.

In 2009, PRC posted a 35.2 percent passing rate with only 110,429 out of the total 314,031 examinees passing the examination.