QC, Manila students boycott NCAE

A group of high school students in Quezon City and Manila led by the militant League of Filipino Students (LFS) boycotted the National Career Assessment Examinations (NCAE) on Tuesday, saying the test “will not improve the quality of education in the country." In a statement, Hiyas Laya Garduce, LFS chairperson, said the NCAE is a “career-oriented screening that would only pander to foreign companies to push cheap labor." The NCAE, which replaced the National Admission Test, measures the entrepreneurial and technical-vocational aptitude of graduating high school students. The exam gauges students’ acquired knowledge and also guides them in choosing courses in college. Garduce said taking the NCAE is a way to “give in to the policies of the World Trade Organization and World Bank (that promote) technical and vocational courses." “It is but another concrete illustration of the government’s misaligned priorities in basic education…NCAE will not solve poor quality of basic education (because it only) aims to screen and streamline basic education to cater to vocational-technical and other supermaid courses," she added. After its second implementation this Tuesday, Garduce said the Department of Education (DepEd) will move for the passage of a law for the exam to be compulsorily taken by students. She said this would mean that students who would have low marks would only be allowed to take vocational or technical courses. The students who refused to take the exam, mounted a protest in front of the DepEd in Pasig City. They came from Qurino High School, Krus na Ligas High School, Commonwealth High School, San Francisco High School, Ramon Magsaysay High School and the UP Integrated School, which are all in Quezon City and from Manila High School. - GMANews.TV