Why is DepEd holding on to 2018 NAT data?

The National Achievement Test (NAT) data in the recently published 2023 Philippine Statistical Yearbook (PSY) has not been updated, merely rerunning the SY 2014-2015-SY 2016-2017 results first published in the 2019 PSY. All the other basic education data in the edition have been updated to either SY 2021-2022 or SY 2022-2023. The unpublished data are those of the first NATs under the K-12 curriculum.

I suspect that one reason the Department of Education (DepEd) is holding on to the 2018 NAT data is the Grade 6 NAT score is in the same range as that of the scores in the two previous years. The DepEd has gone on record many times that the scores in 2018 cannot be compared with those of previous years because under the K-12 curriculum, the test already measures proficiency in 21st-century skills in contrast with the old NAT design which was competency-based including in the “Basic Education Development Plan 2030” and the “Updated Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022.”

The truth of the matter is DepEd is trying to throw the country off the scent of the fact that the 40-percent drop in the Grade 6 NAT score in 2016 which persisted until 2018 when the test was temporarily discontinued was caused by the change in the schedule of the test from the end of the school year to the start of the following school year. With the Grade 6 NAT takers already in Grade 7, their elementary schools were no longer able to “assist” them. The 40-percent reduction in the scores represents the massive fraud that used to attend the test for years.

Aside from the obvious cock-and-bull explanations of the DepEd of the plunge in the Grade 6 NAT scores, one proof that indeed it was the change in the test schedule which pulled down the Grade 6 NAT scores is the fact that the regional rankings are strikingly consistent with the regional rankings in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) 2018 and 2022. On the other hand, the Pisa regional rankings almost share nothing with the Grade 6 NAT rankings before 2016.