Are we NATs?
Very recently, the Division of Iloilo City was declared as a “high performing schools division” in the country due to its mind-boggling feat in the National Achievement Test (NAT) for Grade Six pupils. No less than the division superintendent, boasted this in the papers and in some of his speaking sorties. But does this claim have statistical, logical, and moral ascendancy? Is the assertion of our local DepEd and our “pleased” local officials well-founded?
If the raw scores are to be believed, it says that the 1st up to the 39th placers in the NAT are all from public elementary schools in the metropolis. The private schools, popularly considered to be the blue chip educational hubs in the city, ranked way below that of the DepEd-managed institutions. Some of them are Iloilo Scholastics Academy (47th), Ateneo de Iloilo (49th), St. Joseph School (50th), Assumption School (52nd), Colegio de las Hijas de Jesus (53rd), Iloilo Central Commercial High School (56th), Angelicum School (57th), and Westbridge School for Boys (59th).
What does this mean?
Out of 70 participating schools, 53 from public and 17 from private institutions, the first 39 best performing schools are all from public schools?! Not even one private school got into the top 39? This is inconceivable! This is a statistical improbability! The odds of this kind of overrated but enormously dubious achievement is 1 is to goggleplex! Who in his right mind will believe this?
Are we nuts enough to believe this statistical joke hook, line and sinker? Are we that naïve, apathetic, or mathematically ill-equipped to just eat this big chunk of lie as it is?
DepEd’s numbers want us to believe that no private school in town can match the first 39 public schools in the areas of Filipino, English, Science, Math, and HEKASI. No one, not even the excellent Language programs of Ateneo and Assumption, or the first-rate math instructions of ISA and ICCHS, or the finest scientific pedagogies of Ateneo and Westbridge School can prevail over or just equal the exploits of these 39 public schools in the city?
Where’s the logic here?
A number of people in the city would like to enroll and are working hard to enroll their kids in some of the well-known private schools in town. And three of the main raison d’êtres are quality education, more modest facilities, and creditable formation program. But the point of view of the latest NAT result suggests otherwise.
I am saying this with all due respect to the very many competent teachers and administrators in public schools. But we have to admit, their brilliant teaching skills will never be enough if these are not complemented by reliable and error-free books, learning-friendly classrooms, complete laboratory facilities, healthy and highly parent-supported students, clean school environment, updated instructional and teaching tools and strategies, undistorted administrative concepts of evaluation and assessment, longer and authentic class hours, well-oiled faculty formation system, judicious and apt salaries, and consistently values-oriented culture of excellence.
Yes, there are public elementary schools that continuously and consistently live to their vision and mission for academic excellence. But are we suppose to believe that there are 39 of them who are more academically excellent in the context of Grade Six instruction as against some of the private schools in town? That not even one of these private schools can get into the 39th place?
In contrast, the NCAE result for second year high school students in Iloilo City revealed that there are roughly 6 or 7 public schools (mainly science schools) that went into the top 20 spot while the other 14 come from the private schools. What makes this result more believable is that those public schools that went into the top spots are Philippine Science High School, SPED-ISEC, and UP Visayas—all considered schools with good academic reputation. To solidify the validity of the result, same popularly known outstanding private schools also shared the top spots, namely, Assumption, Ateneo and ISA.
To note, some private schools just received their NAT results a month ago. Curiously, only the achievement result of the private schools were given to them; no mention of the result of the public schools to compare with. Why separate it? NCAE gave these schools the complete top 55 ranking of the high schools in the city, why can’t NAT results be distributed in the same way?
Where is this coming from? My rage to this statistically ridiculous and logically unbelievable performance of the division of Iloilo City stems from the undeniable fact that this can only be possible if different forms of cheating happened in the conduct of the NAT. And in my simple personal one-on-on interviews and surveys to some public school students, teachers and administrators, I have realized that cheating in NAT, more specifically in some city schools, is already common knowledge!
How do some schools cheat? What are these shocking strategies?
- Tell better students to give their answers while instruct not-so-good students to get answers from the former. In this case, the good ones are assigned in strategic places so “division of tasks” is ensured. In short, they tell students to cheat, nothing less. If these instructions are coming from teachers, what kind of values are we modeling or offering to our young kids? This is so demonic that I consider this the antithesis of education!
- Proctors, teachers and even administrators give and announce the answers to the pupils taking the test. This is terribly immoral, to say the least.
- Intellectually-challenged students are encouraged, if not forced, not to attend and take the NAT. Students who are asked to be absent are directly told that they are “no good” at all. This is one of the worst ways to kill a pupil’s self esteem and self-respect, the values that we are supposed to boost and improve in them.
- Months are used exclusively for NAT reviews, setting aside the usual curricular demands of the school. This approach defeats the purpose of an achievement test. The result would be invalid and unreliable because class instruction is not normal anymore and is tampered with dubious variables and inconsistencies.
- Some good students from other grade level take the test for another person. This act of misrepresentation and forgery is a counterculture. It fosters dishonesty and deceit. That is why these are called crimes (and the ones who do it are criminals) in the legal parlance.
- Answers are checked and verified by school officials, proctors, and teachers. This is not part of the standard procedure in NAT taking. Here, the venue for cheating is pregnant. Therefore, test results may end up invalid, highly questionable and moot.
I am a product of a public elementary school. And I am proud of it. That is why it pains me to see that the kind of school that we had in the past—a school full of love and self-respect; a school that nurtures honesty, integrity, and veritable excellence but abhors cheating, lying and stealing—is not the same anymore as we have at present.
Yes, there are still public schools out there that deserve in the top 39. These are schools who took the NAT the way it should be done. But from the looks of it, it seems that some guys in DepEd have not just cheated their way to get high NAT scores, but more alarmingly, have cheated the pupils—the supposed hope of our fatherland.
They are the ones who have killed these young kids’ self respect. They are the ones who have taught students that cheating is justified. They are the ones who have shown to kids how to dupe and swindle. They are the ones who have paraded to these young tots the normalcy of stealing one’s answer and the habit of lying to people. These are the ones who teach these children to act like them, animals: value-less, greedy, unprincipled, monsters, and cheat.
What is the price of all these? High ranking in the NAT result matrix? Nice nod and smile from the supervisors or from the city mayor? Unfounded pride one can get from this lie? The measly perks? The intoxicating pleasure of fame? All crap!
This is a plain mockery of the country’s educational system! What is more alarming is that this educational treachery may even be possibly happening in other parts of our already sorry nation. Something must be done. Something must be stopped. Something must be learned.
Nonetheless, whoever are the culprits can already dethrone Satan in hell!
(Engr. Lagon is a physics teacher. He is presently finishing his PhD in Science Education Major in Math degree at West Visayas State University.)