1.8M HS seniors required to take 'NCAE' on Dec. 12

Some 1.8 million senior high school students from both public and private schools are set to take the mandatory National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) on December 12 to address the issue of "job skills mismatch" in the country, Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said on Monday. "Job skills mismatch is major challenge right now. A large number of trained graduates are left unemployed or underemployed because they do not fit the requirements of the job market,’’ Lapus told reporters. The education secretary noted that the NCAE is different from the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) which was abolished during the time of the late former education secretary Raul Roco. Unlike the NCEE, the NCAE will focus on technical and vocation capabilities, as well as entrepreneurial skills. "This is different from NCEE because what was being measured in that NCEE is the general scholastic ability while the NCAE will measure two other domains in addition, such as the technical vocational aptitude and entrepreneurial," Lapus said. The education secretary said that the NCAE will be mandatory for all fourth-year students but the first two years of its implementation will not be a prerequisite for admission to college. However, on the third year, students from both public and private schools must pass the NCAE before they can enter college. He added that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is set to issue an executive order that would maket the NCAE mandatory. Lapus said the new examination was designed by as a result of study conducted by joint technical working group of Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) and the Technical Educational Skills Development Authority (TESDA).-GMANews.TV