NSCB - Statistically Speaking... On Professional Board Examinations: Women Versus Men! by Dr. Romulo A. Virola

On Professional Board Examinations: Women Versus Men!
by Dr. Romulo A. Virola ¹
Secretary General, NSCB

I am one of those who passionately believe that a good education is the most important asset one can have. I therefore believe that many of the problems of our society have their roots in poor education. No way does this mean, of course, that people with “good” education are not greedy, are not corrupt, are not immoral, et cetera. I also believe that the Department of Education is the most critical department in the government bureaucracy and it saddens me that this department has not been perceived as the model government agency it should be. And it pains me even more to realize that the quality of education received by our people has deteriorated badly over the years, especially when compared to our neighbors. Maybe enough of those silly sitcoms and tearjerking telenovelas coming out of the idiot box?

Using data from the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), let us hear what some statistics on education say. And let us find out how the women are coping with the men or vice versa!

One current gender issue is the bias in the choice of professions between women and men leading to the inequitable access of women to services and opportunities. For example, very few women are enrolled in the Philippine Military Academy while much fewer men than women are in mass communication. Preliminary updated tables of the NSCB publication, Women and Men in the Philippines, Statistical Handbook show that during the school year 2001-02, the most favored field of women was business administration and related courses followed by education and teacher training. In business administration, the number of women enrollees was close to double the male enrollees, while in teaching, the women out-enrolled the men three to one. For men, the most favored field was engineering followed by business administration and related courses. In engineering, men outnumbered women three to one. This imbalance leads us to gush whenever we meet a woman piloto!

And in spite of the fact that many of us think that women are more serious with their studies and therefore have better chances of finishing, among many Filipino families facing budgetary constraints, when deciding who between a male sibling and a female sibling should have priority in going to college, chances are the son would have the edge. So, it may be surprising to many that in higher education, women outnumber men six to five (by about 300,000 for SY 2001-02). Also, many may not believe that women outnumber men in mathematics and computer science, 142, 943 to 119, 191! In law and jurisprudence, the gender gap is not as wide as some may think and is getting narrower: 8,597 women and 11,049 men, a gap of 22.2%, from 31.9% in 2000-01!

And true to expectations, in terms of completion of college education, in 2000, women outnumbered men, three to two! Mga bulakbolero, take heed!

So, what is happening to the Filipino macho? In the Filipino family where the women hold the purse, and now, everything seems to point to women holding the brains as well, where will the men go?

And what about the battle of the sexes in professional board examinations?

Each year, the PRC conducts board examinations in about 40 professions. Close to a quarter of a million graduates take these examinations with the women outnumbering the men two to one, both in terms of examinees and in terms of passers.

In 2003, the largest groups of examinees classified by minor occupational groups in accordance with the NSCB’s Philippine Standard Occupational Classification, sat for the board examinations for elementary school teachers, 75,300; secondary school teachers, 68,910; engineers and related professionals, 25,511; health professionals excluding nursing, 21,073; and nursing and midwifery professionals, 18,132.

Usually, a total of less than 90,000 examinees would pass in any given year, with an average passing rate of 35 % during the last four years. Women fared better in the exams for dentists, nurses and secondary school teachers. But surprise of all surprises! In each of the last four years, the percentage of passing for men was higher than for women, 38% versus 34%. Men generally had higher percentages of passing in the board examinations for chemists, engineers, medical doctors, nutritionists and dieticians, elementary school teachers and accountants and auditors. Does this mean men are not so hopeless, after all? My other speculative explanation will not sit well with my friends from the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, so I will keep that to myself! But why do men do much better than women in elementary school teachers’ examinations but do very badly compared to women in secondary school teachers’ exams?

The highest percentages of passing were recorded for ship and aircraft controllers and technicians, 62.0%; librarians, archivists and curators, 51.1%; nursing and midwifery professionals, 48.4%; social and related science professionals, 48.0% and chemists, 42.6%. Posting the lowest passing percentages were accountants and auditors, 19.5%, elementary school teachers, 24.1%; medical equipment operators, 24.9%; life science professionals, 25.4% and secondary school teachers, 28.7%. I am not so sure about the hidden meanings of these statistics, though!

I worry, however, over the decline in the percentage of passing in 2003 by about 5 percentage points from the previous years. And even more worrisome is the fact that this decline was caused by the deterioration in the passing rates for elementary and secondary school teachers by about 5.5 and 13.5 percentage points, respectively from the average of the preceding three years. It is time we asked, what will happen to our children, Miss Tapia?

	Male					Female					Total
	2000	2001	2002	2003	AVE	2000	2001	2002	2003	AVE	2000	2001	2002	2003	AVE
Examinees
Number	75,994	67,334	70,386	76,840	72,639	151,007	162,872	162,984	168,374	161,309	227,001	230,206	233,370	245,214	233,948
%	33.5	29.2	30.2	31.3	31	66.5	70.8	69.8	68.7	69	100	100	100	100	100

Passers
Number	29,926	26,717	27,353	26,683	27,670	54,620	57,005	58,408	49,962	54,999	84,546	83,722	85,761	76,645	82,669
%	35.4	31.9	31.9	34.8	34	64.6	68.1	68.1	65.2	66	100	100	100	100	100

% Passing	39.4	39.7	38.9	34.7	38	36.2	35.0	35.8	29.7	34	37.2	36.4	36.7	31.3	35

*PSOC Code**	Description	Male					Female					Total
*PSOC Code**	Description	2000	2001	2002	2003	AVE	2000	2001	2002	2003	AVE	2000	2001	2002	2003	AVE
211	Physicist, Chemists and related professionals	47.9	46.5	54.7	50.5	49.9	42.7	46.8	48.8	39.0	44.3	44.2	46.7	50.5	42.6	46.0
214	Architects and related professionals	33.0	38.0	42.3	39.9	38.3	25.9	32.9	35.5	31.0	31.3	31.3	36.6	40.6	37.3	36.4
215	Engineers and related professionals	39.7	42.8	39.4	39.9	40.4	34.5	39.0	36.9	37.4	37.0	38.7	42.1	38.9	39.3	39.8
221	Life Science professionals	41.6	55.5	40.7	26.3	41.0	31.3	48.7	30.2	24.4	33.7	37.5	52.7	36.5	25.4	38.0
222	Health professionals (except nursing)	42.4	42.7	42.2	42.3	42.4	41.0	40.4	42.0	41.9	41.3	41.4	41.0	42.1	42.0	41.6
2221	Medical Doctors	67.9	65.3	64.5	58.5	64.1	63.1	60.6	62.3	55.0	60.3	65	62.3	63.2	56.3	61.7
2222	Dentists	35.3	33.5	38.1	32.5	34.9	39.0	36.8	42.5	36.3	38.6	38.1	36.1	41.5	35.5	37.8
2225	Nutritionists and Dietitians	57.7	90.9	58.3	62.2	67.3	54.9	56.5	52.8	48.9	53.3	55.0	57.7	53.2	50.0	54.0
2228	Physical Therapy	27.9	28.1	26.0	28.0	27.5	23.5	22.4	23.5	25.5	23.7	24.9	24.2	24.3	26.3	24.9
223	Nursing and Midwifery professionals	49.1	51.7	41.0	48.7	47.6	50.3	52.4	46.4	48.3	49.4	50.1	52.3	45.5	48.4	49.1
2331	General Secondary Education Teaching professionals	22.1	21.3	23.1	15.8	20.6	52.5	45.8	47.5	33.0	44.7	45.2	39.9	41.6	28.7	38.8
2341	General Elementary Education Teaching professionals	57.4	59.2	60.5	45.5	55.6	24.3	25.3	26.5	20.6	24.2	28.3	29.5	31.0	24.1	28.2
2411	Accountants and Auditors	23.4	23.2	23.3	23.5	23.4	17.1	15.8	17.1	18.0	17.0	18.8	17.7	18.7	19.5	18.7
3133	Medical Equipment Operators	34.8	43.8	33.3	28.3	35.0	40.0	30.1	34.0	21.8	31.5	37.8	36.4	33.7	24.9	33.2
314	Ship and Aircraft Controllers and Technicians	47.2	55.6	40.7	62.1	51.4	66.7	100.0	100.0	50.0	79.2	47.2	57.9	44.8	62.0	53.0