Education department suspends holding of local achievement tests

Sunday, January 22, 2012

THE Education department has ordered its regional offices to stop the holding of regional and division achievement tests effective June this year in preparation for the start of its K to 12 program.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro said his order contained in Memorandum Order 7 also covered similar assessment tools used by regional and division offices.

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Instead of such tests, Luistro said schools should use only the annual National Achievement Test (NAT) to gauge the performance of their students.

"The National Achievement Test held March of every year shall be the sole assessment tool that will be recognized in measuring the performance of pupils and students attributing to the performance of individual schools, municipalities, congressional districts, schools city division, provinces and region," the official said in his order.

The department is preparing for the transition phase of the K to 12 program with the implementation of a new curriculum for Grade 1 pupils and 1st year high school students this coming school year.

Under the plan, Grade 1 pupils will only spend four hours of classes every day while the curriculum for the 1st year high school students would be more interactive and student-centered.

Likewise, the new curriculum will be taught under the mother tongue-based multi-lingual education (MTB-MLE) method in studying lessons from Kinder up to Grade 3.

Luistro said earlier studies have shown that students learn better when the language used at home is the same language used in discussing class lessons.

The K to 12 program is part of the education reform program under the Aquino administration, which seeks to revise the current 10-year basic education cycle to 12 by adding two years of senior high school and giving more grounding to students in technical-vocational education.

The DepEd chief said that the additional two years will focus on the student’s preferred specialization such as in science and technology, business entrepreneurship, arts and music, sports, agriculture and fisheries or technical-vocational courses. (AH/Sunnex)