PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines – At least 39 educators from Western Mindanao passed the National Qualifying Examination for Principals (NQEP) given simultaneously in various testing centers in the country last school year by the Department of Education (DepED).

DepEd Region 9 Director Walter O. Albos said the NQEP was initiated by DepEd three years ago to eliminate the malpractice by some unscrupulous field education executives of promoting teachers largely on the basis of “whom you know and not what you know” or the so-called “palakasan” system.

According to Albos, a DepEd announcement said that a total of only 924 out of close to 10,000 examinees or some 9.5 percent passed the examination, which gave a 90 percentile as the passing mark based on the total standard score obtained by the takers.

The DepEd announcement identified the top 10 NQEP qualifiers from Region 9 as Pedrita Pampora who placed first with a rating of 99.69, followed by Arnel Jajan – 99.57, Jones C. Torres – 99.56, Jennifer T. Bulalon – 99.31, Rysa C. Arellano – 99.30, Helen de Leon – 99.10, Maria Fe. T. Valera – 98.25, Fe Josol – 97.95, Ailen L. Poncho with 97.84, and Fe Butac – 97.62.

The national examination for elementary and secondary school principals, Albos said, constituted 170 test items equitably distributed across nine performance areas or leadership experience of school heads.

Albos said these include school leadership, instructional leadership, creating a student-centered learning climate, professional human resource development, parent involvement and building community, school management and daily operations, personal integrity and interpersonal sensitivity, English language proficiency and reading comprehension.