Plan school resources, monitor achievement test

The Department of Education (DepEd) is inviting parents, members of the community and other education stakeholders to a monthlong planning session on how to address resource gaps this coming school year.

Meetings will be held in public schools across the country to try to draw up a consultative school plan on how government and other education partners can meet shortages in classrooms, teachers, textbooks, desks and other resources.

“With the leadership of school heads, our target is to come up with concrete guidelines to ensure that all early enrolees in January will report to school in June,” said Education Secretary Armin Luistro.

The assembly will also tackle other forms of education delivery, particularly the alternative learning system for out-of-school youth and adults.

“Intervention programs will also be mapped out for out-of-school children and youth to enable them to complete schooling. The differentiated program interventions may include alternative delivery modes, alternative learning systems and nonconventional teaching strategies,” DepEd said.

During the sessions, school officials are expected to identify available resources in their respective schools to determine shortages or surpluses.

To address resource gaps, DepEd advised school officials to discuss with local government units (LGUs) and other stakeholders possible support for priority schools.

DepEd said it was also inviting local education stakeholders like LGUs, civic groups and nongovernment organizations to join a monitoring group to ensure the smooth conduct of the National Achievement Test (NAT) in March.

The department is conducting a pre-NAT seminar/workshop to set rules

on test administration and to ensure the security of materials.

Luistro said the seminar, to be attended by division testing coordinators and private school supervisors, was intended to ensure the smooth conduct of the test and protect its integrity.

Among the key points to be discussed are: proper conduct of the test, security of materials, delivery and retrieval schemes, and allocation of materials.

Administered by DepEd’s National Education Testing and Research Center (NETRC), NAT is given toward the end of the school year to gauge the academic performance in key subjects of elementary and secondary students in both public and private schools.

Dr. Nelia Benito of NETRC said, in preparation for future enhancement of the basic education curriculum, NAT would be given to fourth-year, instead of second-year, high school students in public and private schools.

This would give feedback on knowledge gained after the 10-year basic education cycle.

Results would also be used as input for the K to 12 program, she said.

NAT will also be administered to Grade 3 pupils of public schools, Madrasah schools and pilot schools of mother tongue-based multilingual education.