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| What do you see? What do you see? What do you see? |
I saw on the news yesterday that
DepEd is junking the RAT (Regional Achievement Test) and the DAT (Division Achievement
Test) retaining only the NAT (National Achievement Test) as the gauge of pupils’
performance. I wonder why it took this long for the department higher echelons
to junk these useless and redundant tests. The logic behind the DAT and the
REAT is that it is meant to be preparatory and a simulation of the NAT. The
tests are also used by the regional and the division offices to gauge the
performance of their divisons, districts and schools. I say craaappppp! From first hand knowledge and folklore, these tests are badly prepared
recycled mimeographed paper with contents cut and pasted from last year’s and the years after ad infinitum…the
word validity and reliability definitely took on a whole meaning with these hmmm... tests.
Anyway…
I began teaching in the public school last
year during the second quarter grading period, and I was concerned when I learned that
we, the teachers, had to accelerate our lessons so that we could prepare for the RAT, DAT and
the NAT that will be given in the last quarter of the school year. This meant
that lessons that should be taught during the fourth quarter would be crammed with the third quarter lessons. Now, I am not a Ph. D. or an Ed. D. or a D.D.
(not Doctor of Divinity but Doctor of Documents); I am just a lowly
elementary school teacher with enough common sense to know that cramming two grading periods (two quarters) of lessons into one grading period ( one quarter) is like cramming two kilos of rice
into a one kilo container. Something is bound to happen like spilling and
wasting or wasting and spilling. Now, my humble inquiry which required adumbration is how in the world this system could help learning ?
I wonder Wonder Woman! Anyway...
I wonder Wonder Woman! Anyway...
My experiences with crappy tests and
examinations made me arrive at these conclusions:
1. Cramming
is not learning. (Obvious) When an examiner crams, he/she memorizes by rote.
Once the tests are over, all the data crammed in a head, like a person who has
diarrhea and constipation and loose bowel movement all rolled into one, all these
data are regurgitated down the mental toilet bowl to be disposed of like
amoebic feces. The experience leaving the learners exhausted but relieved and with the wrong concept of
education: get high score on tests! Cram, cram, cram, cram! I n the name of the Lord of the Rings, tests are
just words disconnected with reality and life; they measure not the whole.
2. Persuading
(pressuring) pupils to get high scores on tests is harmful to the pupils. Why?
Education is not all about tests! Education is not all about getting high
scores on tests! Education is not about getting tests on high scores! Education
is about acquiring knowledge (or wisdom) by an individual after studying
particular subject matters or experiencing life lessons that provide an
understanding of something.1 Sadly, because
of ranking (an evil, evil concept in Philippine education) schools are more
focused on doing well with ranking than with educating. Cram, cram, cram, cram…
3. Teachers
get the wrong idea. When teachers are told to focus their efforts to preparing
their pupils to do well in achievement tests, they don’t teach; they review.
What is the problem with this? Well, instead of focusing on concepts,
internalizing lessons, promoting creativity etc. what happens is that pupils
were made to recall names, dates, figures, process, definitions, situations
etc. over and over again by taking review tests over and over again until the children develop psychological pre-examination stress syndrome.
The
idea is to learn!
Anyway, DepEd Secretary Luistro is correct with junking these superfluous performance tests. Less is better.
__________________
1. Look up the definition on the net, forgot the link...too lazy to check browsing history.
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