DepEd sets Feb. 10 accreditation exam in Visayas

The Department of Education will conduct the Accreditation and Equivalency Test for 2008 in the Visayas on February 10.

DepEd regional director Carolino Mordeno said the exam is an annual activity that aims to give the country’s out-of-school youth a chance to continue their education.

Mordeno said test passers will be given certificates equivalent to elementary or high school diplomas which will allow them to enroll in formal schools.

Some 80,000 out-of-school youth have registered to take this year’s AET, according to DepEd’s Bureau of Alternative Learning System (BALS). The registration period was held from September 3 to November 23, 2007.

As early as last August, DepEd said it held regional orientation sessions to familiarize examinees on the test procedures. Additional orientation will be given two days before the testing dates.

DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus said the test is a “significant initiative the DepEd has implemented to make the system of education more inclusive.”

Last year, more than 50,000 out-of-school youth from all over the country took the test, which aims to “determine the examinees’ skills and inclinations.”

The AET will be administered on February 3 in Mindanao; February 10 in the Visayas and Bicol Region; February 17 in Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon and the Cordillera Administrative Region; and February 24 in Southern Tagalog, Mindoro Oriental, Mindoro Occidental, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan.

Lapus stressed the need to increase public awareness on the department’s alternative programs for non-formal learning.

BALS has been implementing various modes of learning designed for those who cannot avail themselves of formal schooling, such as youth and adult illiterates and school dropouts.

Its key strategies include the basic literacy program for indigenous peoples and the mobile teacher program, which covers mainly the country’s marginalized communities. —  Jasmin R. Uy/LPM