No Periodical Examinations for the school year 2020–2021

According to the DepEd, there will be no periodical examinations for students undergoing blended learning for the school year 2020–2021.

No periodical examinations for the school year 2020–2021

One good news received by students lately is that the Department of Education shall impose a no periodical examination mandate on all schools during online learning. As the reopening of schools draws near, the department is solidifying its guidelines covering the blended learning program. One of which points to the periodical examinations. The periodical exams are usually conducted once every grading period, to measure the progress a student has achieved for the duration of that particular grading period.

However, according to DepEd Undersecretary for academic curriculum, Diosdado San Antonio, no periodical examinations shall be conducted this school year. The periodical exams contribute 20 percent of a student’s overall mark, but, in the blended learning set up, it will be hard to determine if conducting remote examinations will be as effective or not. For Antonio, outputs coming from modules and online tasks are enough to measure the progress of the students. Another suggestion was to come up with a written or recorded video showcasing the learnings throughout a student’s distance learning journey.

For Antonio, excluding the periodical examinations in this school year’s curriculum can help lessen the school fees in private schools, and at the same time, reduce the possibility of cheating. Since teachers won’t be able to physically facilitate these exams, it will be hard to assume that there will be no cheating involved. Whereas, in an output based project, it can certainly come up with unique outputs from each of the students.

Written by Ken Vincent Rosales

The eagerness to learn something new is better than relying on a single field of expertise. Diversity is the key to success.