120 JPAIR Multidisciplinary Research Education, Second Courser, and non-College of Education Graduate’s Performance in the Licensure Examination for Teachers of JRMSU-TC SY 2013-2016 DANA FAYE T. SALUNDAGUIT http://orcid.prg/0000-0003-2239-5472 danafharsal@gmail.com Jose Rizal Memorial State University - Tampilisan Campus Znac, Tampilisan Zamboanga del Norte Originality: 100% • Grammar Check: 99% • Plagiarism: 0% ABSTRACT Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) is a standardized examination given to qualified graduates who wish to engage in the teaching profession in both elementary and secondary level. The examination is administered by the Professional Regulatory Commission twice in a year and set the passing percentage to 75%. The study employed a descriptive method of research in determining the LET performances of Education and non-Education graduates of Jose Rizal Memorial State University-Tampilisan Campus (JRMSU-TC). LET results coming from the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) were considered as the main data of the study. The present study considered 281 Elementary Education takers broken down into 168 BEED graduates and 113 non Education graduates, and 235 Secondary Education takers classified according to 75 BSED graduates, 127 Professional Education Certificate (PEC) graduates, and 33 non- College of Education (CED) graduates. The statistical measures used in the study Vol. 34 · October 2018 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7719/jpair.v34i1.633 Print ISSN 2012-3981 Online ISSN 2244-0445 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. http://orcid.prg/ mailto:danafharsal@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 121 International Peer Reviewed Journal were frequency count and percentage. The salient features were as follows: The Bachelor of Elementary Education (BEED) first takers performed well in the LET but combining their results with the repeaters, and non-education graduates, results barely surpass the national passing percentage. In the case of the Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSED), overall results indicated low performance in the LET or below the national passing percentage. Based on the findings of the study it was recommended to review the policies of the College of Education particularly on the entry and retention policies, faculty commitment, and the conduct of review classes and mock board. Keywords — Licensure Examination for Teachers, Education Graduates, non-Education Graduates, second course, Descriptive Design, Philippines INTRODUCTION For teachers to be globally competitive, one must be highly prepared for the global qualification. As reiterated by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in 2012, schools must help to build a quality nation and contribute to its global competitiveness (Adeyemo, 2015). This mandate includes the need for the higher education system to produce graduates with analytical and problem- solving skills, among others and to align the Philippine Educational system to the rest of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) which requires competent, highly qualified, and dedicated teachers. The state recognized the vital role of teachers in nation-building and development through responsible and literate citizen (sec. 2 Art. 1, of RA 7836). Furthermore, Teacher quality is one of the goals of the national education systems worldwide and one proposed measure of teacher quality, is teacher licensing, also known as certification, it is an increasingly global component of national education systems and pre-service teacher education around the world (Wiseman and Al-bakr, 2013). Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) is a standardized examination given twice in a year which requires an examinee to attain an average rating of not less than 75% and must have no rating of lower than 50% in any area covered. Similarly, in most states in the United States, teachers are awarded an initial teaching certificate after they have completed the course requirements of their teacher education program and have successfully passed the state teacher- licensing exam. England, on the other hand, is the only country other than the United States that requires a licensure examination in addition to the 122 JPAIR Multidisciplinary Research examinations given by the teacher education institution (Wang, Coleman, Coley, & Phelps, 2003). There are lots of reasons why teachers need to be certified one of which is salary like in Indonesia wherein the teachers are to become certified in exchange for a doubling of their salary, another reason is for better student performance, unfortunately, research from the US using large-scale, longitudinal data is virtually unanimous in its failure to find an association between teacher certification and student performance (Pugatch, T. 2017). Jose Rizal Memorial State University-Tampilisan Campus (JRMSU-TC) is one of the five campuses of Jose Rizal Memorial State University System. The campus offered Education courses since 1997 and produced its pioneering group of graduates last 2001 and up to the present. Out of the dismay of the faculty and staff of the College regarding the recent results of the LET, this study was conceptualized primarily because of the downward trend performance of the LET that used to be high in the previous years. It is also the findings of the Commission of Higher Education (CHED) who declared that for the most recent years, there had been reports about the deteriorating quality of teacher education graduates as reflected in the PRC-LET results. These also prompted lots of studies about Licensure Examination particularly on the causes and factors affecting its deterioration. The present study would like to find out the cause of the downtrend performance of the PRC-LET results of the institution however, it will only concentrate on the rating of those non education graduates who happen to qualify to take the LET by taking the Professional Education Certificate (PEC) or the second courser, and the qualified education graduates from other colleges. It is assumed that their ratings as incorporated in the College of Education LET results causes the decline of the overall results. FRAMEWORK The study is anchored primarily on two theories that are formulated based on the study conducted by Faltado (2014), namely the Holistic TEI Theory and the Three-Tiered Theory on LET Performance Enhancement with corresponding theory modeling. The Holistic TEI theory states that in order for a teacher education institution to perform better in the licensure examination, it must have a holistic package. This means that teacher education institutions must improve and further enhance its status with respect to admission and retention policy, curriculum and instruction, faculty competence, research and extension, physical plant and facilities, administration and school culture. The second theory is the 123 International Peer Reviewed Journal Three-Tiered Theory on LET Performance Enhancement which states that the performance in the Licensure Examination for Teachers is predicted by three aspects, the admission and retention policy, curriculum and instruction and faculty competence. The Conceptual Framework of the study below shows that the variables are interrelated, the first frame as the independent variable consisting of the LET takers classified as Education graduates, non-education graduates, and the second coursers as it is directly related to the second frame which is the dependent variable containing their passing percentage in the LET. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The researcher aimed to: (1) Describe the LET passing performance of BEED first takers and repeaters including the LET passing Performance of the Elementary Education graduates, non-College of Education (CED) graduates, against the National Passing Percentage, (2) Determine the LET passing performance of the BSED first takers and repeaters including the LET passing Performance of the Secondary Education graduates, Second courser and non- CED graduates against the National Passing Percentage. METHODOLOGY Research Design The study employed a descriptive method of research. Descriptive method was employed because the present study aimed to describe the performance of graduates in the Licensure Examination for Teachers from SY 2013-2016. 124 JPAIR Multidisciplinary Research Research Site The study was conducted at Jose Rizal Memorial State University-Tampilisan Campus. The school was established on December 16, 1958, as Zamboanga del Norte Agricultural College with a total land reserved of 2,300 hectares. JRMSU-TC started offering Bachelor of Elementary Education and Bachelor of Elementary Education in 1997 up to the present, but prior to this, the institution had an existing education program under the College of Agriculture labeled as non-CED students. The school is located in the western part of Mindanao and around 155 km from Dipolog City, the capital of the province and one of the six (6) campuses of the JRMSU system. Participants The respondents of the study were the 281 Elementary Education takers broken down into 168 BEED graduates and 113 non Education graduates, and the 235 Secondary Education takers classified according to 75 BSED graduates, 127 Professional Education Certificate (PEC) graduates, and 33 non-College of Education (CED) graduates. Instrumentation The study utilized the scores of takers coming from the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) from the school year 2013 to 2016. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION A. BEED (Education), non-CED graduates and National Passing Percentage Graph 1. LET Passing Performance of BEED graduates as to First Takers and Repeaters 125 International Peer Reviewed Journal The graph showed a huge disparity between the first takers and repeaters particularly in January 2014 (First taker 75%, Repeaters 12.50%), August 2014 (First taker 36%, zero percent Repeaters), March 2015 (First taker 66.67%, Repeaters 17.86%), and September 2015 (First taker 4667%, Repeaters 8.33%). The results indicated that first takers made a remarkable rating in the LET; however, the repeaters pulled down their results. The result of the study agrees with the claim of Figuerres (2013) which she expounded that fresh graduates of the teacher education programs tend to perform higher in the LET than those who took the LET at the later examination schedule. Also, it fits with the findings of Antiolo (2017) stating therein that the first takers had much higher passing percentage than the repeaters. Graph 2. LET Passing Performance of BEED and non-CED graduates against the National Passing Percentage. The graph showed a comparison between the BEED passing percentages, non-CED graduates passing percentages as against the national passing percentage. Results indicate that combining the passing percentages of BEED first and repeaters still exceeded the national passing percentage in most number of school years (Jan 2014 with 33.33% against 27.78%, Aug 2014 33.33% against 29.89%, Sept 2015 with 35.71% against 27.42%, and March 2016 with 38.71% against 35.43%) covered in the present study. The result is related to the study conducted by Figuerres (2013) on board examinees of University of Northern Philippines which she found that institutional passing rate was higher than the national passing rate of L.E.T elementary. However, in the case of non-CED graduates’ takers, their passing percentage only exceeded the national passing in March 2013 having 50% passing percentage against 42.46% national passing. 126 JPAIR Multidisciplinary Research Graph 3. LET Institutional Passing Performance of BEED against the National Passing Percentage The graph showed the institutional passing percentage of JRMSU-TC against the National passing percentage. The result indicates that the BEED takers were pulled down because of the non-CED graduate takers. It is a clear indication that only in March 2013 wherein the BEED takers exceeded the national passing with 43.24% against 42.46%. Unlike, in the case of the University of Northern Philippines which indicated their performance in the Licensure Examination for Teachers, in both courses (Elementary and Secondary) have been consistently higher than the national passing rates (Figuerres, 2010) B. BSED (Education), Second Courser (PEC), Non-CED graduates and National Passing Percentage Graph 4. LET Passing Performance of BSED graduates as to first Takers and Repeaters The graph shows the passing percentage of BSED first takers and repeaters covering the school year 2013-2016. The result indicates a dismal performance of the repeaters when compared to the first takers in SY September 2015 with 66.67% against 0%, Aug. 2014 with 57.14% against 9.09%, January 2014 127 International Peer Reviewed Journal (33.33% against 0%), and March 2013 (66.67% against 33.33%). Results imply that repeaters affected the performance of the first takers when their passing percentage was combined. The result of the study was attested by Antiolo (2017) who confirmed that it was a common observation among TEI’s that repeaters pull down the Institutional Passing Percentage (IPP) in LET. First takers got higher chances of passing LET than the repeaters. Graph 5. The BSED, second courser, Non-CED graduates and National Passing Percentage The graph indicates the passing percentage of BSED, second courser, non- CED graduate takers and the national passing percentage. Results revealed the low performance of the BSED having only March 2016 (36.36% against 35.42) and March 2013 (41.67% against 39.61%) passing percentage higher than the national passing percentage. The result further revealed a very low performance of the second courser, and non-CED graduate takers, thus making the overall performance very low as compared to the national passing percentage. The same result was revealed by Rabanal (2011) who found out that the teacher education graduate respondents failed to achieve the passing rate in the Licensure Examination for Teachers. 128 JPAIR Multidisciplinary Research Graph 6. The Institutional and National Passing Percentage The graph shows a very low passing performance of the BSED takers when compared to the National passing percentages covering the SY 2013 to 2016. The result is very much evident that the CED should make plans and interventions to uplift the passing percentage of the BSED takers. The result is inconsistent with the result of Antiojo (2017) which revealed that the institutions’ passing percentage in terms of a number of passers, on the average, is above the LET National Passing Percentage for both the secondary and elementary education graduates. CONCLUSIONS Based on the findings of the study it is concluded that the BEED and BSED first takers perform better than the repeaters. The BEED takers perform better than non-CED graduate takers surpassing the national passing percentages in the following school years: March 2016, Sept. 2015, Aug 2014, and Jan 2014, while BSED results are greatly affected by the second courser, and non- CED graduate results and finally, BEED and BSED overall results are low compared to the national passing percentage. TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH The findings of this research study can be translated into formulating review materials or workbook focused on the Professional Education and general education topics that will be disseminated and published to help education student-graduates pass the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET). Furthermore, this also leads to the formulation of a more strict policy in the entry and retention policy to secure the graduates in passing the LET. 129 International Peer Reviewed Journal RECOMMENDATIONS Based on the findings of the study it is highly recommended that for the College of Education students the entry/retention policy of the college shall be strictly followed and monitored by the chairpersons and Dean, the attendance to the review class must be monitored and checked, students found to have 20% absent from the required number of hours must be dropped from the pre-board subject, result from the mock board examination shall be considered as one of the factors in allowing the students to take the board examination, it is therefore to be presented in the academic council for Board of Regent’s approval, and lastly faculty commitment shall be encouraged so that class observation must be frequently done for monitoring to improve the academic performance of the College of Education students. LITERATURE CITED Adeyemo, K. S. (2015). Regulatory and skills requirements for higher education in the Philippines. Industry and Higher Education, 29(2), 89-92. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5367/ihe.2015.0249 Antiojo, L. P. (2017). Performance of Education Graduates in the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET).  PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences, 3(2). https://dx.doi.org/10.20319/pijss.2017.32.13631384 Esmeralda, A.B., Espinosa, J.P. (2015). Teacher Education Graduates’ Performance as Predictor of Licensure Examination for Teachers Results. DOI: 10.7719/jpair.v21i1.330 Faltado, R. E. (2014). Correlates of performance in the licensure examination of selected public and private teacher education institutions.  International Journal of Education and Research,  2(8), 167-176. Retrieved from https:// goo.gl/pjKgbk Figuerres O. B. (2010). An Analysis of the Performance of UNP in the Licensure Examination for Teachers, 2001-2010 Retrieved from https://ejournals.ph/ article.php?id=3219 https://doi.org/10.5367%2Fihe.2015.0249 https://dx.doi.org/10.20319/pijss.2017.32.13631384 https://ejournals.ph/article.php?id=3219 https://ejournals.ph/article.php?id=3219 130 JPAIR Multidisciplinary Research Figuerres, O. B. (2013). An analysis of the performance of the University of Northern Philippines in the Licensure Examination for Teachers. IAMURE International Journal of Education, 6(1), 1-1. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/ idh2DH Pugatch, T. (2017). Is teacher certification an effective tool for developing countries?. IZA World of Labor. Retrieved from 10.15185/izawol.349 Rabanal, G.C. (2016). Academic achievement and LET performance of the bachelor of elementary education graduates, University of Northern Philippines. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 6(6), 455-461. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/vvQwzo Wang, A. H., Coleman, A. B., Coley, R. J., & Phelps, R. P. (2003). Preparing Teachers around the World. Policy Information Report. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/14iim2 Wiseman, A. W., & Al-bakr, F. (2013). The elusiveness of teacher quality: A comparative analysis of teacher certification and student achievement in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.  Prospects,  43(3), 289-309. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-013-9272-z http://dx.doi.org/10.15185/izawol.349