MANILA, Philippines — Over 5,000 teachers nationwide are now qualified to become school principals after passing the Department of Education (DepEd)-administered examination for school heads.
Under DepEd Memorandum 059, the agency said that out of nearly 22,000 takers of the 2023 National Qualifying Examination for School Heads (NQESH), 5,753 or 26 percent passed for appointment to entry-level school principal positions.
The rest of the takers who scored below the required indicators were advised to take the next NQESH.
Education Secretary Sonny Angara said the NQESH aims to “increase the department’s pool of qualified aspiring principals to fill in existing and continuous vacancies due to retirement, promotion or vacancies.”
Top-performing takers were all from school divisions in Metro Manila, including Quezon City, Mandaluyong, Pasay, Manila, Valenzuela, Malabon, Navotas, Parañaque and Taguig-Pateros.
Marlon Maravilla, a teacher from Quezon City, was named top overall scorer with a grade of 92.10.
Angara said the NQESH serves as an opportunity for head teachers to progress and for the DepEd to continue its baseline assessment of all aspiring school heads’ competencies and learning needs.
He added that it also assesses and identifies learning and professional development needs of potential school heads to prepare them to lead a school.
Aspiring school heads take the NQESH every year, but to qualify for examinations, they must have spent at least a year as head teacher or two years as master teacher or teacher-in-charge.
Also qualified to take the test are those with Teacher III rank or other positions within the same salary grade who have had five years teaching experience or incumbent public school teachers who have had managerial and supervisory experience in a DepEd-recognized private school or private and state university or college.
Those who have aggregate experience of all the qualifications are also eligible.
Yearly, 22,000 examinee slots are distributed nationwide in each region and priority is given to those who have served as head teacher for one year, assistant school principals without NQESH eligibility, teachers-in-charge and master teachers.
The DepEd said it would release the rating of all takers to their regional offices.