Disruption of classes to defer career exam

The Department of Education (DepEd) is mulling the postponement of the National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) for fourth year students in private and public high schools on Aug. 28.

DepEd officials said the suspension of classes for several days last week due to typhoons “Chedeng,” “Dodong” and “Egay” may necessitate the rescheduling of the NCAE to give high schools in both the public and private sector more time to prepare students who will take the test.

Kenneth Tirado, DepEd communications officer, said however that as of yesterday, DepEd is still sticking with the Aug. 28 examination date.

DepEd earlier announced the holding of the NCAE for school year 2007-2008 to furnish examinees useful information on their competencies and help them choose what course to take after high school.

The DepEd is aggressively campaigning for technical-vocational (tech-voc) education and training as a viable path for high school graduates before going to college.

DepEd is pursuing the campaign for tech-voc education promotion with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), which in turn is urging schools to “ladderize” their college programs to involve the infusion of tech-voc education and skills training in the first two years of the curriculum.

This plan will ensure that college students will learn tech-voc skills even if they do not finish the four or five-year college course.

The NCAE aims to enable students and parents to better assess career options based on the student’s own skills and propensity towards various fields of interest.

The test will not only evaluate their academic aptitude, but also their technical and vocational capacities, as well as their entrepreneurial skills.

Aside from testing only the usual general scholastic abilities, like what was done in the defunct National College Entrance Examination (NCEE), it also measures aptitudes in several domains, including technical-vocational aptitude, occupational interests and entrepreneurial skills.