DepEd adopts new system in honor student rankings

DepEd regional director Carolino Mordeno said the education department is using a new scheme in the selection of honor students, saying that the average grades in the previous academic years will not matter anymore in the ranking.

"The grades obtained by the students when he or she is in Grade 5 or third year in high school will not be considered anymore when he vies for honors upon graduation," he said.

He further added that the top ten honor students will be ranked using the 7-3 point scheme wherein 7 points will be for the academic performance and 3 points will be for the leadership in co-curricular activities.

For academic excellence, it will be based on the general average of the five learning areas in the curriculum year namely: Filipino, English, Science, Math and Makabayan.

Performance in the co-curricular activities covers the achievement of candidates in all activities and in their active participation in authorized student organizations or clubs.

In case of a tie, candidates may both be declared for the honor ranking and candidates for honors must have done the entire work of the grade and year level in the school where they are candidates for honors thus, those who will transfer during the school year will not be eligible for that curriculum year.

A pupil or student who has been suspended for serious disciplinary infractions will also be disqualified for honors for the curriculum or grade level during the imposition of the suspension.

A committee will be tasked to do the selection, but any teacher who is related within the second degree of affinity to any candidate for honors will not be allowed to sit as member in the selection committee.

The head of the school will be the head of the selection committee and will make the announcements in the selection of honor students.

Also, the DepEd will be putting up reading centers in every barangay in its effort to solve the reading deficiencies of the students in the region.

Mordeno said that this is one of their ways to boost reading competency and to also provide teachers with techniques and strategies on how they could improve their student's reading skills.

Aside from this, they have also implemented the "One Word a Day" program, where students will be taught an English word per day, which is also converted to Filipino to add up to their vocabulary.

Pretest results of the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory conducted last year showed that at least 78 percent of pupils from 68 public schools in Cebu City are poor English readers, further classified as frustration-level readers and non-readers.

A total of 72,751 pupils from Grades II to VI took the pre-test and 57,264 got poor ratings, or about 78 percent. From these numbers, 54,787 are classified as frustration-level readers while 2,531 are considered non-readers.

Frustration-level readers are those who can read English but poor in comprehension while non-readers are those who could not read English at all, said Flordeliza Sambrano, city schools coordinator of the English curriculum.

The highest number of frustration-level readers comes from Grade III with 12,014.

Next are from Grade IV with 11,304, then Grade II (10,751), Grade V (10,641), and Grade VI (10,027). The most non-readers belong to Grade II with 1,197, followed by Grade III (620), Grade IV (310), Grade VI (209), and Grade V (195). - Jasmin R. Uy