PRC board secretary Carlos Almelor revealed that from 95 percent in 2000 to 2001, the percentage of examinees that pass the medical board plunged to 54 to 56 in the recent years.

Almelor attributed the significant decline to the mushrooming of medical schools in the provinces and the worsening quality of education in these institutions.

Following this development, CHED proposed that medical schools enhance its standards or face a similar fate with 24 nursing schools it earlier ordered for closure.

"There is really a need for intensive screening of teachers for medical schools," Catherine Castañeda of the CHED office for programs and standards told reporters.

She added that CHED continues to mobilize teams to evaluate nursing and medical schools on a regular basis.

Philippine Medical Association (PMA) president Modesto Llamas also said they have stepped up efforts to thwart cheating during examinations.

According to him, his group has been coordinating with the PRC and CHED to keep examinees away from cheating.

"While examiners in the medical board take questions from a central database, the test questions are printed randomly for each examinee, making it impossible for them to copy from their seatmates," explained Llamas.

CHED said it shall continue monitoring substandard schools and programs, particularly nursing.

To date, 23 schools offering nursing programs have been ordered to close down after it failed to meet the Board of Nursing (BN) requirements.

Another 32 nursing schools are likely to be phase out since it did not meet the eight percent passing average (in the last five years) in its licensure examinations, CHED said.