ILOILO CITY—The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has confirmed that cheating marred an annual examination of public school students in Iloilo.
Elfren Meneses Jr., NBI Western Visayas director, said the agency’s three-month investigation has shown proof of irregularities in the National Achievement Test (NAT) conducted last year and the Regional Achievement Test (RAT) this year in Barotac Nuevo town in Iloilo.
Meneses said among the findings were students having the same correct and wrong answers in their tests results.
“It appears that it was planned,” said Meneses Wednesday.
The NAT and RAT are administered annually by the Department of Education (DepEd) to public elementary and high school students to determine student proficiency and weaknesses in key subjects including English, Mathematics and Filipino.
Answer guide
“It is highly improbable that several classrooms of students will have the same correct and wrong answers,” Meneses said.
The pattern of answers of the students also matched an answer guide that was allegedly used in the cheating. A copy of the answer guide was furnished the NBI.
In random written tests that the NBI asked some students to take during the investigation, students gave answers different from the ones they gave in the NAT tests.
NBI conducted the random tests in at least five schools in Barotac Nuevo.
The test results corroborated NBI findings that there was systematic cheating during the two examinations.
The investigation was conducted after Iloilo Provincial Board Member Gerardo Flores requested the agency to look into the allegations of Gracia Malazarte, former principal of the Lico-an Elementary School in Barotac Nuevo.
Malazarte earlier said she came out to expose the cheating because it was morally unacceptable. She claimed that the cheating allowed the DepEd Division of Iloilo to boast of topping the 2010 NAT for Grades 3 and 6 pupils and placing second in tests for High School in Western Visayas.
Several school and DepEd officials denied and denounced Malazarte’s allegation but it didn’t stop the DepEd from investigating it.
Meneses said NBI agents have sent their report to their head office in Manila and were waiting for directives.