Career exams to proceed as scheduled

The Department of Education (DepEd) announced yesterday that the second National Career Assessment Examinations (NCAE) for all 4th year high school students in public and private high schools will push through as scheduled on Aug. 28.

DepEd said the National Education Testing and Research Center (NETRC), which will conduct the test, is all set to administer the examination next Tuesday.

“Public and private 4th year high school students will take the exams to determine which career path is best to take after graduation, based on the individual test results,” DepEd said.

The department said that the schedule of the test has already been decreed in DepEd Memorandum 270 series of 2007 published earlier, wherein it was provided that the NETRC shall administer the NCAE to 4th year high school students every last week of August. This year the test is set on Aug. 28.

DepEd officials earlier revealed that there were plans to postpone the NCAE due to the string of class suspensions last week due to floods caused by heavy rains brought by typhoons “Chedeng,” “Dodong” and “Egay.”

The NCAE is being administered by DepEd to provide graduating high school students with information on where their competencies lie to help them choose what course to take after high school.

DepEd officials are promoting technical-vocational (tech-voc) education and training as a viable career path for high school graduates before going on to college.

The department is pursuing the campaign for tech-voc education with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) urging schools to “ladderize” their college programs, which involves the infusion of tech-voc education and skills training in the first two years of the curriculum to ensure that college students learn technical skills even if he or she does not finish the four- or five-year college course.

The NCAE will enable students and parents to better assess the career options of high school graduates based on the student’s skills and propensity towards various fields of interest. 

NCAE will evaluate not only academic aptitude, but also technical and vocational capabilities, as well as entrepreneurial skills.

This aims to enable students, as well as their parents, to rationalize career prospects, as well as focus on careers with jobs available in the future.

The NCAE was developed by the NETRC in consultation with testing experts from the Center for Educational Measurement (CEM). The NETRC will oversee the administering of the test to some 1.5 million private and public high school students.

It will be recalled that the results of the NCAE for school year 2006-07 showed that more than half of the 1.3 million students who took the test showed poor aptitude for college courses.