■ Ofelia C. Empian
Examinees from the Cordillera performed well in health and engineering licensure examinations, according to the Professional Regulation Commission.
PRC-Cordillera recorded that examinees from Cordillera-based schools are topping the physician licensure exam with a passing rate of 69.58 percent, followed by mining engineer at 67.11 percent, architecture at 57.41 percent, medical technology at 55.66 percent, electronic technician at 55.22 percent, respiratory therapist at 53.47 percent, registered master electrician at 52.92 percent, pharmacist at 51.01percent, registered electrical engineer at 48.57, and librarian at 47.78 percent.
PRC-CAR Director Juanita Domogen said most of these courses are being offered by universities and colleges in the region. Only the electronic technicians and the master electrician are being offered as non-baccalaureate courses.
The profession with the highest number of examinees for the last three years is teachers licensure examination with 30,948 examinees while criminologist in the second spot with 9,000 examinees.
Other courses that get the highest number of examinees are: civil engineering on top three, medical technologists on top five, followed by electrical engineers, pharmacist, architects, agriculturist, and mechanical engineering.
Domogen said Cordillera remains to be one of the sought-after places for examinees.
“Cordillera has good schools offering these programs that offer board examinations kaya din mataas ang number of examinees. Aside from that we also have to acknowledge the cool weather contributing to the high number of examinees in Baguio City,” Domogen said.
Examinees as far as Visayas and Mindanao come up to Baguio to take their exams, as they are not limited to cater to only Cordilleran examinees.
At present, there are six licensure exams left until Dec. 15 of the 63 examinations scheduled this year. These are physical therapist, occupational therapist, radiologic, X-ray technologist, and chemist and chemical technician licensure exams.
In 2024, the PRC-CAR will include the sanitary engineer and the psychologist board exams.