ILOILO CITY, Philippines -- The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) in Western Visayas wants to limit the rights of repeaters to re-take the nursing licensure examination.

Repeaters are considered those who have failed to pass the examinations the first time around.

Dr. Rex Casiple, CHEd assistant regional director, said repeaters pulled down the passing percentage of 16 nursing schools in Western Visayas, which otherwise performed well during the November 2009 nursing board examinations.

Citing data from the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC), Casiple said 4,028 out of 8,047 examinees in Western Visayas or 50 percent passed the examination, the result of which was released on February 1. The regional passing rate is 10.28 percent higher than the national passing average of 39.72 percent.

Sixteen of the 21 nursing schools in the region or 76 percent were high performers or performing above the national average, according to Casiple.

Ten of the 48 examinees who were in the top 10 passers were from Western Visayas including Katrina Isabel Doromal of St. Paul University-Iloilo who was tied with two other examinees for fifth place with a passing grade of 86.40 percent.

Those who made it to the top 10 included five graduates from the St. Paul University-Iloilo, two from Central Philippine University, and one each from the West Visayas State University, Aklan State University and West Negros College.

But Casiple said the repeaters pulled down the regional passing average. He said 60 percent of the first-time takers passed but only 24 percent of the repeaters or 548 out of the 2,286 did.

He said this held true in the national passing average of 39.72 percent with the passers among first-time takers reaching 49.39 percent while only 26.69 percent of all repeaters nationwide passed.

Of the 94,462 examinees who took in the nursing board in the country, 54,326 or 57.6 percent were first-time takers and 40,069 or 42.2 percent were repeaters, according to Casiple.

He said the CHEd and PRC must formulate a policy to regulate repeaters in taking the board examination or require them to take refresher subjects or lessons.

Aside from the significant number of repeaters who took the examination, Casiple said the performance of nursing schools have also been affected by the lack of school-owned hospitals and lack of qualified faculty.

He said most of the nursing schools in Western Visayas lacked schools to accommodate the training

There is an acute need for qualified faculty due to the growing number of nursing students.

Casiple said many graduates have taken up nursing as a second course because of the demand for nurses abroad.