MANILA, Philippines -- Grade 6 pupils in public schools nationwide achieved vastly improved mean percentage scores in the latest National Achievement Test, chalking up a “very encouraging” 65 percent against an “alarming” 43 percent in 2003, said Education Secretary Jesli A. Lapus.
“The NAT results show that our reforms are moving in the right direction,” Lapus told a press briefing on Wednesday. “The key reforms and well-focused policy directions to improve basic education are slowly but surely bearing fruit. We have our hardworking DepEd family and our private sector partners to thank for.”
He said he was confident that “we’re on our way to meeting our target of 75 percent in 2010.”
Some 1.64 million students from 30,396 public schools took the NAT last March.
The NAT, aimed at determining students’ achievement level, strengths and weaknesses in key subject areas, as well as identifying those who may require remedial classes during the first year of high school, is administered by the National Educational Testing and Research Center (NETRC) under the education department.
The March test results also indicated that students’ learning skills in the five subject areas—Mathematics, Science, Filipino, Hekasi (short for Heograpiya (Geography), Kasaysayan (History) and Sibika (Civic) and English—were improving, said Lapus.
Compared to 2007 figures, the students’ mean percentage score in Mathematics rose by 6 percent, in Science by 12.3 percent, in Filipino by 10.9 percent and Hekasi by 10.5 percent.
However, their English score went up by only 1.4 percent.
Test results also showed that female examinees outscored their male, 66.1 percent and 64 percent, while public schools in rural areas performed better than their counterparts in urban areas, 65.5 percent and 64.4 percent.
“Schools with low mastery (of the five subject areas) decreased from 3 in every 100 schools last year to 1 this year,” Lapus said.
From 1,898 last year, the number of poor performing schools in the NAT dropped to 391 this year, Lapus said.
According to NETRC Director Nelia Benito, the top performing regions (with examinees of 100,000 and above) were Southern Tagalog, Central Luzon and Central Visayas.
Among regions with examinees of 60,000 to 100,000, the top performers were Eastern Visayas, Ilocos and Socsargen.
The poorest performing regions were the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and Western Visayas.
The top-performing DepEd divisions included Cavite, Batangas, Oriental Mindoro, Southern Leyte, Romblon, and Bataan.
Among the best performing schools were the Molino Elementary School, Gov. Espiritu Elementary School, Bayanan Elementary School, Likha Molino IV Elementary School and Talaba Elementary School, in Cavite; San Miguel Elementary School, Bulacan; Manuel L. Quezon Elementary School, Quezon City; Marasbaras Elementary School, Tacloban City; Inicbulan Elementary School, Batangas; Milagroso Elementary School, Southern Leyte; and the Agbaluto Elementary School in Romblon.
