Do these schools ring a bell to you? Or have you even heard of them?
Southern Leyte State University, Manuel E. Enverga University Foundation, Isabela State University, Bohol Island State University, Surigao State College of Technology and University of Eastern Samar.
Probably not, because they are based outside Metro Manila and are hardly, if ever, in the news.
Those are some of the schools in the provinces whose graduates either topped or were in the top 10 of the licensure examinations for various professions, e.g., engineering, medicine and nursing, that the Professional Regulation Commission held last year.
What’s more, the average passing rate of those schools was even higher than some of their Metro Manila counterparts.
That remarkable performance has been going on for the past years and is expected to get better as the internet and other modern technology have given students outside Metro Manila easy access to educational materials that used to be available only in the nation’s capital and at great expense.
They are able to attend online lectures, seminars and discussion fora from the comfort of their campuses or homes, for free or at reasonable costs, with minimal distraction from the problems that are common in highly urbanized cities.
Besides that, they enjoy the social and emotional support of their family and close friends, making them less susceptible to mental issues.
With the parity in educational quality, graduates of famous colleges, such as the University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University and De La Salle University, can no longer consider it their “birth right” to pass the licensure exams, much less dominate them like they used to in the past.
Henceforth, the entry of “provincial” licensure examinees in the passers’ honor list should not be considered a fluke or a stroke of luck, but proof of their academic excellence.
They can go toe to toe with Metro Manila school graduates in professional competence tests and come out ahead.
This development should change the longstanding perception of some businesses that the talents and skills they need for their operation can be sourced only from graduates of Metro Manila schools.
It is common knowledge in the business circles that HR (human resources) staffs tend to favor graduates from Metro Manila schools, especially those coming from schools where their big bosses graduated from, in the hiring process.
The job applications of the so-called “promdi” (a pejorative word that was once used to describe students coming from the provinces) or “other” schools are at the bottom of the pile unless some politician or influential personality within the company intervenes on their behalf.
In the instances that the less preferred applicants get the job, they are often under pressure to prove they were worth it or otherwise show that they are as good, if not better, than their Metro Manila counterpart.
Worse, if they happen to work with graduates of supposedly elite Metro Manila schools who suffer from misplaced superiority complex, they have to endure subtle discriminatory treatment or made to feel they do not belong in their company.
The results of the recent licensure exams show that there is a huge reservoir of professional acumen in areas outside Metro Manila waiting to be tapped. That’s new blood that some businesses can use to invigorate their operations.
One significant thing going for those new professionals is they have minimal or no sense of entitlement that many Metro Manila school graduates who do very well in licensure tests are known to have when they apply for work.
That feeling, which is often the basis for a demand for favorable treatment in pay and other employment conditions, is often the bane of HR staffs when dealing with them. INQ
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