Officials concerned over low passing rate in medical board examinations

Manila: The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) has said there is an urgent need to institute reforms in medical and nursing curricula to tackle the declining quality of students who pass the board examinations in the country.

According to PRC board secretary Carlos Almelor, the number of passes dropped to 54 to 56 per cent in recent years from a high of 95 per cent in 2000 to 2001.

He blamed the downtrend on the proliferation of medical schools in the provinces, and at the same time poor quality of education in these institutions.

In a related development, CHED urged medical schools to inject reforms in the curricula to improve its standards or face a similar fate with 24 nursing schools it earlier ordered closed.

"There is really a need for intensive screening of teachers for medical schools," Catherine Castañeda of the CHED office for programmes and standards told reporters.

She added that CHED continues to evaluate nursing and medical schools on a regular basis.

Philippine Medical Association (PMA) president Modesto Llamas also said the group had intensified efforts to prevent cheating during examinations.

He said the PMA has been coordinating with the PRC and CHED to keep examinees away from cheating.

"While examiners in the medical board take questions from a central database, the test questions are printed randomly for each examinee, making it impossible for them to copy from their mates," explained Llamas.

AFP

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