By: Dr. Rex Casiple
5,538 out of the 13,492 examinees nationwide (41.05%) passed the Agriculturist Licensure Examination given by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) Board of Agriculture in the 12 testing centers in the country in November 2019.
Central Philippine University (CPU) from Western Visayas Region ranked number 2 in the national level (95.12% passing) among schools with 20 or more examinees and with at least 80% passing percentage.
Also, Ms Layka Aguro Servidad from Central Philippine University ranked third among successful examinees who landed in the ten highest places at the national level. CPU is the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Center of Excellence (COE) in Agriculture Education. Congratulations!
In the regional level, 13 agricultural schools in Western Visayas out of 30, or 43.33%, performed high or with a passing percentage higher than that of the national level. The Region produced 520 passers out of 1,378 takers, or 37.74% passing percentage.
There were 208 repeaters who took the examination and 1,170 first takers. The repeaters’ passing percentage is 33.17%, while the first takers passing percentage is 38.55%. Eight (8) out of 10 examinees from the Region were first takers. The low performance of first takers and repeaters in the Region pinned down the Region’s overall performance.
The top four (4) high performing higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Region with 20 or more examinees and above 50% passing percentage, in order, are Central Philippine University, Northern Negros State College of Science and Technology (NONESCOST) in Negros Occidental, Capiz State University (CAPSU) – Burias Campus and Aklan State University (ASU) in Banga, Aklan.
The Aklan State University is the CHED Center of Development (COD) in Agriculture Education.
A Center of Development (COD) is an acknowledgment of school program performance in academic work and excellent education in the near future. It is a designation of programs with above-average performance in teaching, research and extension functions.
A COD program should at least be a strong undergraduate program, has a faculty with strong potential to be developed to undertake research and publish results; and must be inclined to establish links and share resources and outputs with other academic programs or discipline of the same kind.
There are 13 CODs in the Region: Aklan State University-Banga and West Visayas State University -Lambunao (Agriculture), Iloilo State College of Fisheries (Fisheries), WVSU (Forestry), Central Philippine University (Chemical Engineering), WVSU (Nursing), University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos (Information Technology), CPU (Electronics Engineering and Electrical Engineering), and WVSU, ISAT University, University of San Agustin, and University of Saint La Salle (Teacher Education).
Region VI has four (4) Centers of Excellence (COE): Central Philippine University as COE in Agriculture, UP- Visayas as COE in Fisheries Education, Central Philippine University as COE in Business Education, and West Visayas State University as COE in Teacher Education.
On the other hand, the Commission on Higher Education has granted Autonomous and Deregulated status to seven private higher education institutions (PHEIs) in the Region. The Autonomous schools are John B. Lacson Foundation Maritime University-Arevalo, John B. Lacson Foundation Maritime University – Molo, John B. Lacson Colleges Foundation – Bacolod, Central Philippine University and University of Saint La Salle.
The deregulated schools are University of San Agustin and Filamer Christian University. The main criteria for autonomous schools are long tradition of integrity and untarnished reputation; commitment to excellence and sustainability and viability of operations.
