Factors and Challenges Influencing the Criminologist Licensure Examination Performance through the Non-passers’ Lens

<p style="text-align: justify;">This study aimed to explore the perceived factors that influenced the success and challenges experienced when taking licensure examination among Bachelor of Science in Criminology graduates of a state university in the Philippines who failed in the Criminologist Licensure Examinations (CLE). Descriptive-correlational research design was utilized to analyze quantitative data, and Colaizzi’s descriptive phenomenology was used for the thematic analysis of qualitative data. The quantitative findings revealed that home and family factor has a high influence on the success in CLE, while student factor, school factor, review center factor, and personal factor have average influence. Further, ten clusters of themes emerged as factors that influence the success in CLE. Among them were interest and focus on the program, and availability of qualified and dedicated faculty. Among the themes that emerged as challenges were lack of preparedness for the exam because of one’s work, and personal and social pressures. There is a significant difference on the respondents’ perception towards the factors that influence the success in CLE when they are grouped according to sex. Regarding the challenges associated with preparing for and taking the CLE, a significant difference is only observed when respondents are grouped according to their civil status. Generally, married respondents have higher weighted means than the single ones. This implies that the identified challenges affected married respondents more than the single ones. These results can be used to make policies and initiate programs that would enhance graduates’ success in the exam by providing appropriate interventions and early remediations.</p>

System Admission Test and Licensure Examination for Teachers: The Case of Passed and Conditional Groups

A vast body of studies has a propensity towards considering system admission test (SAT) scores as one collective variable that influences the licensure examination performance. The current article revisits this research area and further takes a step forward in analysing the influence of SAT score grouped into two categories as passed and conditional. This study is a comparative analysis of the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) performance according to SAT groups of a cohort of 86 elementary education graduates from the Bachelor of Elementary Education (BEEd) Department at the College of Education (CoEd), Mindanao State University, General Santos City (MSU GSC), Philippines. The Mann-Whitney U Test was mainly used as a statistical tool. The results showed that the majority of the students with passed SAT scores obtained a good level of LET performance and those with conditional SAT scores attained a fair level of LET performance. It was further revealed that there is a statistically significant difference in the LET performance of the students with passed and conditional SAT scores. Based on these pieces of evidence, this current research presents three essential instructional accommodations that may be considered to improve the future LET trajectory of the students. The recommendation for future research is also offered.

Factors influencing Bachelor of Science in Clinical Medicine students performance in Clinical Officer Council Licensure examination, Kenya

Background: Clinical medicine program has recorded high rates of student’s enrolment to training while their performance in clinical officers’ council (COC) licensure examination remains variable. This study investigated performance of clinical medicine degree student’s in COC examinations by determining student characteristics, institutional and regulatory body factors in relation to performance.Methods: A retrospective study, using mixed method approach to collect data. A sample total of 427 of students was analyzed while cluster and purposive sampling were used for key informants interviewed. Quantitative data was converted from Microsoft excel to statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) software version 26 and analysed. Odd ratio was used to measure strength of association between students,institutions and regulatoy body charateristics and performance with p<0.05 being considered significant. Qualitative data was transcribed for content analysis.Results: The results indicated that there was highly significant relationship among the performance of students in government and private institutions respectively (p<0.001) unlike faith-based institutions (p=0.292). Private institutions were 0.158 more likely to perform better than other institutions while government institutions were 5 times more likely to perform better than any other institutions.Conclusions: Age, mode of study and years of experience were found to be significant factors associated with performance while intergrity in marking was an important concern. The recommendations from the study are that training institutions continue upgrading program but factors contributing to low performances should be looked into. There is need to select experienced faculty to teach and set competency based licensure examination after internship.The study has demonstrated that results can be used to predict performance which are reliable for developing recruitment and examination policies.

Employment, Employability, and Competencies of the Bachelor of Secondary Education Graduates

Tracing graduates has become an imperative for higher education institutions much more during the pandemic. This tracer determined the employment and employability status of the 2019 BSE graduates and identified the competencies they adequately acquired and deemed vital for work. It used descriptive design, and data were collected from the 103 graduates through a Google form with open and closed-ended questions administered between November and December 2020. Results revealed that most of the graduates had been employed in teaching and teaching-related jobs but mostly in contractual arrangements within the first and second six months after graduation. Many had their first jobs with meager salaries from the private sector. Communication, pedagogy, information communication technology, time management, and flexibility were the top competencies they adequately acquired and were beneficial in work. The study concluded that these graduates had acquired 21st-century skills in their respective degree programs. These results have corresponding implications for future research in confirming the most employable skills in secondary teaching. As recommended, classroom instruction might emphasize the development of these skills. Eventually, these become the competitive advantage and employability capitals of future graduates. Administering the licensure examination and the release of its results can be done within the first three months after graduation to lessen the cost of waiting.