"Computerized licensure exams are twenty years late” - Villanueva
Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva expressed concerns on the “long overdue” status of the computer-based licensure examinations (CBLE) project of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), as the PRC Modernization Act of 2000 (Republic Act No. 8981) was enacted more than two decades ago.
This was the senator’s reaction after PRC Commissioner Dr. Jose Cueto Jr.’s statement during the Senate hearing on the proposed 2023 budget of the agency, that no funding was allocated for setting up CBLEs in PRC regional offices for next year.
“Two decades have passed since the PRC Modernization Act was enacted and we have gone through two years of the pandemic. The PRC’s capacity to widely and efficiently conduct computer-based licensure examinations is very long overdue,” Villanueva said.
The senator said that CBLEs allow the PRC to make up for instances when licensure exams are canceled due to natural calamities and health emergencies such as the pandemic.
“Let’s not wait twenty more years. We needed a fully functional computer-based licensure examinations years ago."
At the height of the pandemic in 2020, only 11 out of 85 licensure exams were conducted according to the PRC. The agency also said that they were also only able to conduct 62 out of 101 licensure exams for 2021.
Villanueva also noted that the Licensure Examinations for Teachers (LET) were canceled four times between 2020 and 2021.The senator said that the livelihood of the examinees are held back by the exam cancellations, and that they are forced to wait for another six months for the next scheduled exam, vying for a slot against a new batch of examinees as well as repeat examinees.
Villanueva said that the CBLEs are an “obvious solution” in providing more access to board exams currently held in a limited number of testing sites in different parts of the country.
“Let’s not wait twenty more years. We needed a fully functional CBLE years ago. We are eager to hear from the PRC its modernization plans for transitioning to a digitalized system of conducting licensure exams," he said.
Republic Act No. 8981 mandates the PRC to implement “the full computerization of all licensure examinations by the various professional regulatory boards”.
According to data from the PRC, the agency was able to conduct only one CBLE in 2021, and that they could conduct up to seven CBLEs within 2022. Cueto also mentioned during the Senate hearing that the agency still doesn’t have the capacity to conduct CBLEs in most of PRC regional offices.
“Our government services are subject to the same demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution as our professionals and workforce are. PRC has a lot of catching up to do and making up for lost time,” Villanueva said.#
The IATF’s initial priority list is composed of frontline health workers (1.76 million), indigent senior citizens (3.78 million), remaining senior citizens (5.67 million), remaining indigent Filipinos (12.9 million), and uniformed personnel (about 525,523), which is roughly 24.6 million.
Villanueva explained that IATF would need to precisely identify the 10.4 million additional beneficiaries considering that about 25% or about 10 million of the country’s 39.8 million employed workers as of the October 2020 Labor Force Survey are in “elementary occupations.” The Philippine Statistics Authority says that among those involved in elementary occupations are unskilled labor such as “street vendors, cleaners, domestic helpers and farm hands.”
PSA data also shows that about seven million workers are in sales or service occupations.
“We do not want overlaps in the priority list. Given the limited supply, we must ensure that each dose goes to the rightful beneficiary,” Villanueva pointed out. “While unemployment eased in October to 8.7% or about 3.8 million jobless workers, we must understand that the people also stopped looking for work. The slump is getting into the heads of our workers, and the vaccination program will help boost both the confidence of workers and our businesses as well.”
“We cannot afford to drop the ball on this. The stakes are too high. Our country’s economic recovery depends largely on this,” Villanueva added.