PALO, Leyte – Department of Education Region 8 Director Sol Forcadilla Matugas is requiring all graduating students in private high schools to take the 2009 National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) which the agency has scheduled for August 26 in Eastern Visayas and other regions nationwide.

Matugas’ move complies with Department of Education (DepEd) Memorandum No. 241 (series of 2009) recently issued by Education Secretary Jesli Lapus stressing that only graduating students in private secondary schools with DepEd permit to operate shall take the NCAE, initially enforced in school year 2009-2010 then exclusively taken by senior students in public high schools.

According to Matugas, Lapus has directed the National Educational Testing and Research Center (NETRC) to deliver, through its authorized forwarder/courier, the test materials early enough to various schools division testing centers in the region and other parts of the country

He also directed the NETRC to immediately conduct appropriate seminar-workshop on the standard administration of the NCAE to all schools’ Division Testing Coordinators (DTCs) and Private Schools Supervisors (PSSs) who will ultimately serve as room examiners.

Matugas quoted Lapus as earlier explaining that the NCAE, different from the old National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) which screened who among high school graduating students should proceed to institutions of higher learning for a four-year degree course, primarily seeks to guide senior high school students along with their parents, on what appropriate career path is fitted for them considering their mental capability, aptitude skills and interest, among others.

The NCAE, Lapus added, further intends to ultimately help solve the national malady of thousands of college graduates, many of them from Metro Manila colleges and universities, ending up jobless because they failed prior to entering college, to properly determine their appropriate career path suited to their talent, and to determine the workforce need of industry or employment market.

Quoting Lapus, Matugas said the areas which the NCAE intends to measure amongst graduating student-examinees include General Scholastic Aptitude, Scientific Ability, Reading Comprehension, Verbal Ability, Mathematical Skills, Technical Vocational Aptitude Manipulative Skills and Clerical Ability, Entrepreneurial Skills, Non-verbal Ability, and Occupational Fields of Interest.