Eighteen out of 25 nursing schools in Western Visayas performed well with a higher percentage than other schools in the Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE) conducted by the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) in December 2012. 

According to Commission on Higher Education 6 (CHED-6) Asst. Director Dr. Rex Casiple, Region 6 produced 2,305 passers out of 4,934 takers, with 46.72 percent passing percentage, more than the national passing percentage of 34.46 percent. 

In the said examination 16,908 out of 49,066 examinees nationwide passed.

Quoting the result published in the PRC website, Casiple said four schools from Region 6 were included in the top 20 high performing schools with 50 and above examinees. They are St. Paul University-Iloilo (Rank No. 4), University of San Agustin (Rank No. 16), Central Philippine University (Rank No. 17) and Northern Negros State College of Science and Technology (Nonecost) in Sagay City (Rank No. 19).

Casiple said, in the regional level with 10 and above examinees, the Aklan Catholic College in Kalibo, Aklan ranked first with a passing percentage of 100 percent followed by Aklan Polytechnic College, second at 88.89 percent and St. Anthony’s College, third at 71.43 percent.

Casiple said the high performance of the region’s nursing schools in NLE is a great indication that they have regular monitoring of both public and private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the strict implementation of Policies, Standards and Guidelines in Nursing Education.

Casiple, meanwhile, noted that six out of 10 examinees from the region were first-takers while four out of 10 were repeaters.

“In the last four years, the first-takers’ high passing performances in the region have been pulled down by the repeaters’ poor passing performances,” he stressed.

Casiple also said that with decrease in nursing course enrollment in the last three years, there will be a decrease in the number of NLE first-takers, and an increase in repeaters.*