The University of the Philippines (UP) Los Baños will soon be offering free refresher lessons to students taking the board exam for agriculture.
The Commission on Higher Education (CHED), UP, and 15 state universities and colleges (SUCs) offering Bachelor of Science in Agriculture cooperated to make review lessons more accessible to students in remote areas.
As of 2014, less than half of all applicants have passed the exam. Since the passing rate for the Agriculturists Licensure Exam has plateaued for over a decade, the review program seeks to increase the number of licensed agriculturists in the nation.
Tapping UP
Dubbed ExcelLEArate: A Review and Strategy Program to Empower Students for Licensure Examination for Agriculturists, CHED aimed to tap on UP's expertise in the field to help lift budding agriculturists from other state universities.
“We will use the expertise of the UP Los Baños to conduct free licensure classes for our agriculture students who are preparing for the LEA,” said CHED Chairman Popoy De Vera.
“We do this because I recognized the struggles faced by the graduates from SUCs in remote regions during my visits,” De Vera added.
Recognizing the hardships graduates deal with
Based on its data, CHED said numerous SUCs are offering BS in Agriculture that are “performing below” the National Passing Percentage (NPP).
In the last five years or from 2019 to 2023, only 35.56%, or roughly one-third, of test takers passed the board exam, according to CHED.
The expensive cost of review lessons, which range from ?10,000 to ?15,000, in addition to living expenditures for the period of the classes, is another problem.
Faced with these challenges, CHED expressed confidence that the review program will help agriculture students in 15 SUCs pass the LEA.
A combination of factors, including geographic location, internet access, performance on the annual board exam, and the availability or lack of review centers in their respective locations, were used to choose the 15 SUCs who were going to take part in the online review program.
