Not for the Dense

Only 10 percent or 1,343 out of 13,334 examinees passed the entrance examination for candidate Police Officer 1 conducted by the Philippine National Police (PNP) last April.

The low number of qualified applicants partly explains why the PNP is finding it difficult to fill up its authorized troop ceiling of 174,410 this year, leaving 23,820 positions vacant.

It may also be deduced from the low passing rate that the PNP could not seem to attract the best and brightest college graduates to join its ranks even if the starting salary of policemen has become competitive.

That or Philippine education has so deteriorated to the point that many college graduates could not pass the PNP exam, which while not easy is not known to be tough either.

The low number of college graduates qualified to train to become policemen certainly raises questions on a proposal by PNP chief Director General Ricardo Marquez to allow high school graduates of the K-12 program to join the PNP.

If many college graduates are not good enough to become policemen, how could high school graduates fare better than those with four or five years more years of college level schooling?

The PNP should not dumb down its examination either just to increase the passing percentage of the examinees.

Police work requires making life-and-death decisions and as such cannot be left to the judgment of recruits with questionable aptitude or intelligence. –End-

Image: Credit to the owner