DEAR READER, I can promise to be candid. However, I cannot be impartial. During the course of making this monthly issue, I have stumbled something that I cannot just turn a blind eye on. Like a brave soul who wrote a letter to her school last year, the same horrors still linger after that revelation.
To give you context, recently, the Department of Accountancy has once again surpassed the national average of the CPA Licensure Exam (CPALE). Accordingly, such praiseworthy accomplishment deserves to be featured in The Bedan’s monthly issue. And being responsible for handling the news section, my staff and I should try our best to dig deep, because as student journalists we cannot only take things at face value.
“Well, what those statistics do not tell you dear reader is the story of those who have not made it.”
What unravelled itself was a sight to behold as the statistic the department prides itself is much more than what it seems. Should it be omitted in the final draft of the article only 19 out of the 46 who took the CPALE passed. Out of the 46, 21 were first time takers of which only 6 passed while the other 25 were non first-time takers of which 13 passed. All metrics when measured are well above the national average right?
So where does the problem present itself? Well, what those statistics do not tell you dear reader is the story of those who have not made it. In the department’s numbers for the recent graduates of batch 2022, the 209 freshmen who enrolled in BS Accountancy back in academic year 2018-2019 have been reduced to only 27 once they’ve reached their senior year. Out of those 27 only 12 graduated within four years in which seven took the CPALE and only three passed.
So where did all the ates and kuyas who have not made it go? Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer to that question. Now, do not get me wrong. The BS Accountancy program of the university is as Spartan as they come and producing impressive numbers does not come with coddling students once they get hurt.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and as in that letter it read that “…the system was in fact not wholly for the students but rather lives for the name it wants to hold.” The fact that the university consistently hones its students to be globally competitive is nothing short of admirable. But in its pursuit of global competence, it has come at the expense of being fully human.
The curriculum today has adapted to accommodate the decline of the passing rate of Bedan CPALE takers sometime during the past decade. One of those changes is taking a series of international exams and a review for such which is usually an out-of-pocket expense that will make your eyes water dear reader.
As I write this dear reader, I think to myself: “What right does an outsider like me have to critique such practice?” But then, I also remember a friend who is still soldiering on. Though she has made it to her fourth year she will not be making it to the statistic of those who graduated in four years. Seeing her efforts not bearing fruit is painful especially when I was witness to how many tireless hours she devotes studying.
Rousseau once wrote “The wisest writers devote themselves to what a man ought to know, without asking what a child is capable of learning.” Though none of these involved are children, I believe the success of the university should not only hinge on the results of the few who make it to graduation, but rather the success of the many young minds who entrusted their futures to the institution.
Though the Department of Accountancy has been nothing short of excellent in consistently achieving statistics above the national passing rate. But just as those seem beautiful, I cannot avert my gaze as they are only just as beautiful as the emperor’s new clothes.
