MANILA, Philippines — Grade 12 students from public and private schools will be taking the National Achievement Test (NAT) by the end of the month.
In a memorandum released on Jan. 5, Education Undersecretary Epimaco Densing said the exit assessment, which was designed to be “progressive in nature,” would be administered on Jan. 30 and Jan. 31.
“DepEd has to identify and articulate indicators and targets for measuring performance in the development of plans and policies,” he said.
The test results will serve as data and evidence in improving the implementation of the curriculum, as well as evidence-based decision-making.
According to Densing, the test items would measure varying levels of skills through a multiple-choice paper-based format.
“It is designed to determine if graduating learners are meeting the learning standard in the senior high school (SHS) curriculum,” he said.
The NAT result will also give insight into the percentage of Grade 12 students who have the minimum level of proficiency in the fourth stage of the SHS core areas.
The test will cover 21st-century skills and the primary learning topics in SHS including languages, humanities, communication, mathematics, science, social science, and philosophy.
An online national orientation was held on Jan. 6 to issue the specific guidelines for the test administration and the tasks of field-testing personnel and download of program support funds by the schools’ division office.
In a study published last year, the government think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) pointed out that failure to let the public know about the NAT results had contributed to the ongoing education crisis.
“Even though we continuously administer national achievement tests, the results are never granularly available for in-depth analysis and even less public discussion,” said the report authored by PIDS president Aniceto Orbeta Jr. and research fellow Vicente Paqueo.