DepEd: NAT to be held in March

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd) is set to administer tests to gauge the competence of public school students in Grades III and VI and second year high school this March.

In a statement, DepEd said the National Achievement Test (NAT), given to determine what the students know, understand and are capable of doing at their level, will be administered on March 4 for Grade III, March 6 for Grade VI, and March 11 for second year high school students.

DepEd projects NAT for Grade III to have 1.9 million takers from 37,800 schools while NAT for Grade VI is expected to be taken by 1.7 million students in 37,400 schools.

NAT for second year high school will be administered to 1.3 million students from 6,510 schools.

The DepEd’s National Education Testing and Research Center will be in charge of administering the test.

The NAT for Grade VI comprises five basic subjects, namely Mathematics, English, Science, Filipino and HEKASI. Forty items are allotted for each subject, with a total of 200 items for the entire test.

The NAT for second year high school includes 60 items for the same five subjects except for HEKASI which will be replaced by Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies).

DepEd had administered NAT only to Grade VI and second year high school students in previous years but started to give the NAT to Grade III students during the time of Education Secretary Edilberto de Jesus when there was a move to implement a bridge program which sought to address the alarmingly poor competence of reading and writing among public school pupils by offering an extra remedial year.

The bridge program, however, was canceled following strong opposition from parents who did not want their students to undergo an extra year of basic education.

The 2007 NAT results in Grade VI indicated marked improvement in the Mean Percentage Score (MPS) of examinees in English and Mathematics which recorded a 12-percent increase, while Science also registered a 10-percent increase.

The NAT for Grade III includes Grammar and Reading Comprehension in English and Filipino, Science and Mathematics. This will replace the English and Filipino Reading Tests.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus stressed the need for such tests to gauge the level of competence of students in public schools.

“We have to continuously assess our students’ competency as a means to determine ways to further improve our education system,” Lapus said.

“We need to find ways to sustain improving performance of our students and develop appropriate intervention,” he added.