Passing rate in math, science, English up – but still low

Students’ proficiency in math, science and English has gone up slightly but remains mediocre, based on the passing rate in the three subjects of elementary and high school students who took the National Achievement Test (NAT). GMA-7 newscast ‘24 Oras’ reported that 59 percent of elementary students who took the NAT passed in the three subjects in 2005, higher than the 48 percent posted in 2004. Among high school students who took the NAT, only 47 percent passed in the three subjects in 2005, compared to 44 percent in 2004. “Its still low in comparison to other countries. So we want, we haven’t achieved 75 percent per student achievement. To go up, we feel it’s the teachers should be trained," a Department of Education (DepEd) official said. Teachers welcomed the special training and admitted it would help them a lot in their profession and style in teaching. “Medyo nare-refresh ang mga teachers tapos nabibigyan kami ng other strategy at techniques na puwedeng naming i-apply sa aming classroom setting. Mas nadadagdagan ang kaalaman namin na naituturo sa mga bata," a teacher said. (The training serves as a refresher for teachers. It also teaches us new strategies and techniques that we can apply in a classroom setting. It enhances our knowledge and what we can teach our students.) Aside from the special training for teachers, flawed textbooks have been pulled out of circulation. The NAT used to be called the National Elementary Achievement Test (NEAT) for the grade school level and the National Secondary Achievement Test (NSAT) for the high school level. Last March, 1.8 million sixth-grade students and 1.5 million fourth-year high school students took the test. The DepEd’s National Education Testing and Research Center administers the NAT, which is aimed at determining students’ competency levels.-GMANews.TV