No periodic exams this school year: DepEd

Periodic exams will not be administered by public schools to students this year, the Department of Education (DepEd) said Monday as the Philippine education system shifts to distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead, written outputs and performance tasks will be used to grade and assess the learning of students, DepEd Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio said.

For instance, San Antonio said students can write reflections of their readings or record a speech where they could detail how they understood the lessons.

“Ang feeling namin, that’s (periodic test) very unfair to the learner, lalo na ang mga learner ngayon, iba’t iba ang situwasyon,” San Antonio said in an interview.

(We feel that it’s very unfair for the learner, especially now that they’re in different situations.)

Classes in public schools are set to begin on Oct. 5 after more than a month of delay due to community quarantines. Students will make use of different modes of education delivery as face-to-face classes remain prohibited due to the threat of COVID-19.

While the DepEd said it would distribute printed learning materials, such resources can also be accessed at the education department’s online platform DepEd Commons. These can also be downloaded at Education PH.

Removing the periodic exams can also avoid “distance cheating” where parents and guardians answer the students’ activity sheets or workbooks, San Antonio added.

While the policy is only limited to public schools, the DepEd “strongly” encourages private schools to do the same.

In March, the DepEd also removed the 4th grading periodic exams due to the pandemic and instead came up with a way or teachers to compute the final grade of students.