HOLS YF ® PRESENTATIVES

Republic of the Philippines RECCIVED
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES acl 1 AUG 2016
i DATE:
Quezon City

17" CONGRESS
t Regular Session

REGISTRATION UNIT

ISE 2867
HOUSE BILL NO. E09" | Bis AND INDEX SERVICE

Introduced by REP. EVELINA G. ESCUDERO

EXPLANATORY NOTE

To improve the quality of education and quality of graduates in the elementary,
secondary and tertiary levels, the Philippine educational system has been undergoing
innovative transformation and restructuring. Presently, a small percentage of college
graduates successfully find appropriate employment perfectly suited for their respective
courses, resulting to unemployment and over supply of college graduates in white collar jobs
and shortages in skilled manpower. Further, recent results of professional examinations
consistently yielded small percentage of successful examinees. It is then further aggravated
by the continuous emigration of our professionals seeking employment and high paying jobs
in other countries.

This bill seeks to address this pressing and urgent problem, by institutionalizing a
mechanism which will check, screen and monitor the flow of secondary graduates to post-
secondary learning institutions. A National Career Assessment Examination (NCAB) will act
as an instrument to maintain a viable balance among the number of white collar employees,
skilled manpower and entrepreneurs through a provision of career direction to secondary
graduates.

It aims to provide redirection of skills development program in the tertiary level
specifically aimed at harmonizing and matching the supply from the post-secondary
institution with that of the demand of the country's current employment market. Also, it shall
institutionalize a career direction program for secondary graduates which would assess the
potential of an individual to enter a four-year degree program, to take a technical/vocational
course or embark to entrepreneurship. Finally, it shall answer the pressing and apparent need
to prepare high school graduates for national development and global competitiveness.

In view of the foregoing, the approval of this bill is earnestly sought.

EVELINA G. ESCUDERO,



Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
Quezon City

17" CONGRESS
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL NO. 2867

Introduced by REP. EVELINA G, ESCUDERO

AN ACT
INSTITUTIONALIZING THE NATIONAL CAREER ASSESSMENT EXAMINATION
TO PROVIDE A CAREER DIRECTION PROGRAM FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL
STUDENTS, PROVIDING PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS, AND APPROPRIATING
FUNDS THEREFOR

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in
Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Short Title. — This Act shall be known as the “National Career
Assessment Examination Act”.

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. ~ It is hereby declared the policy of the State to
maintain the highest quality of education for national development and to respect the right of
every citizen to education.

‘The State recognizes the importance of assessing the career aptitude of high school
students to guide them in their choice of courses in colleges, universities, and techni
vocational institutions where their potentials will be best developed and where their training
and education will be needed for national development.

SEC. 3. Objectives. ~ This Act shall have the following objectives:
(a) Provide fair, reasonable, and equitable admission and academic requirements;
(b) Maintain the highest quality of education in the Philippines by regulating and

monitoring the admission of high school graduates to courses where they have better aptitude
or potential:

(c) Minimize wastage in education arising from dropping out, non-completion, and
poor performance of students in colleges and universities, and the decreasing percentage of
successful examinees in professional licensure examinations;


(@ Assess the academic, technical-vocational, and entrepreneurial aptitudes of high
school students to facilitate and rationalize their placement in degree and nondegree courses:

and
(e) Attain excellence in education within the context of national development, open
more job opportunities to our labor force, and properly utilize their productive potentials.

SEC. 4. Nature and Scope of the Examination. ~ There is hereby established a
National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) which is a system of assessing or
evaluating the aptitude of students to pursue a college or university course, a technical-
vocational course, or an entrepreneurial course.

The NCAE shall be administered by the Department of Education (DepED), through
the National Education Testing and Research Center (NETRC), to Grade 9 students in all
public and private secondary schools. The test result which indicates the aptitude, skill, or
inclination of the student in a particular occupational field shall serve as a guide for each
examinee in choosing a course or career option to take up after high school and shall be a
prerequisite for enrolment to any college or university course, technical-vocational course, or
entrepreneurial course.

SEC. 5. Powers and Duties of the Secretary. - To carry out the purposes and
objectives of the NCAE, the Secretary of Education is hereby vested with the following
authority:

(a) Conduct an annual NCAE through the NETRC in order to promote and implement
a program that assesses and evaluates the potential or aptitude of each and every high school
graduate to pursue a college or university course, a technical-vocational course, or an
entrepreneurial course;

(b) Determine the method, form, and content of the test and the process of checking
and evaluating its results, as well as to fix the date and place of examination;

(c) Enter into agreements or contracts, when necessary, with qualified persons,
institutions, organizations, government agencies, entities, and establishments and make
payments incidental to such agreements or contracts to carry out the purposes and objectives
of this Act;

(a) Determine, as the exigencies or national interest may dictate, exemptions from the
provisions of this Act; and

(e) Perform such other acts as may be proper and necessary in order to achieve the
policies of the NCAE.

SEC. 6. Content of the Examination. ~ The NCAE shall measure the following
aptitudes and skills:

(a) General Scholastic Aptitude

(1) Scientific Ability — an assessment of scientific abilities and skills to adopt
scientific methods, procedures, and processes in constructing knowledge and solving
experimental or real-life problems.


(2) Reading Comprehension — measures the ability to understand what has been stated
directly; to analyze, interpret, and criticize what has been read; and to recognize reasonable
application of principles or opinions expressed by the author,

(3) Verbal Ability ~ measures the assertive ability with the use of grammatical rules
and logical arrangement of ideas.

(4) Mathematical Ability — assesses quantitative abilities and computational skills,
particularly on working with numbers, perceiving relationship between two (2) quantities,
and solving arithmetic problems

(5) Logical Reasoning Ability — assesses logical and critical thinking and reasoning
ability.

(b) Technical-Vocational Aptitude
(1) Manipulative Skill — measures the ability to render perceptual and visual judgment

in determining figures, symbols, patterns, and nature of space as well as skills in mentally
manipulating objects and concrete materials.

(2) Clerical Ability — measures the ability and skill to encode data/information and
file office records, and ability to note details.

(c) Entrepreneurial Skill — assesses capacity to engage in business undertakings.

(d) Nonverbal Ability — assesses reasoning ability to identify patterns presented in
diagrammatic form.

(e) Occupational Fields of Interest

(1) Outdoor Interest ~ indicates inclination towards working with naturalistic elements
such as plants and animals.

(2) Mechanical Interest ~ indicates inclination towards working with machines, their
components and operations.

(3) Investigative Interest — indicates inclination towards activities which require
mental work or the use of thinking skills.

(4) Artistic Interest — indicates inclination towards activities that analyze aesthetic
principles such as forms, designs, and patterns.

(5) Social Interest ~ indicates inclination towards work acti
people and promote learning and personal development.

fies that assist other

(6) Enterprising Interest ~ indicates inclination towards activities that involve carrying
out a project, especially business ventures.

(7) Clerical Interest — indicates inclination towards work activities that follow set
procedures and routines.



The DepED shall, from time to time, review the content of the NCAE and make
revisions, as may be deemed necessary, to maintain the relevance, validity, and integrity of
the examination

SEC. 7. Examination Centers and Date of Examination. — Unless otherwise
previously announced, the NCAE shall be administered throughout the country on the last
Wednesday of August of every year, in the place where the schools division office is located
‘Additional examination centers may be established in the province as may be determined by
the Division Examination Committee and approved by the Secretary of Education

SEC. 8. Processing of Examination Results. — The processing of the examination
result shall be in the National Capital Region through the NETRC.

SEC. 9. Issuance of Certificate of Rating. ~ An NCAE Certificate of Rating
indicating the score in each of the domains of the NCAE shall be issued to every examinee by
the Secretary of Education through the NETRC. A consolidated master list of the names of
examinees and their corresponding ratings shall be made available in the concerned schools
division office and questions relating to the results of the NCAE may be verified from this
master list. Issuance of a second copy of the certificate may be requested from the NETRC.

SEC. 10. Involvement of Other Agencies. ~ The Commission on Higher Education
(CHED) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) shall
adopt programs based on the NCAE_ results, such as utilization of examination results as
basis for the selection of grantees for scholarship programs and in setting the cut-off score for
the various CHED and TESDA courses

SEC. 11. Limitations. — Results of the NCAE shall not automatically entitle a student
for admission into any particular academic or technical-vocational course in a post-secondary
institution which imposes its own entrance examination as a requirement for admission.

Institutional results of the NCAE shall be used exclusively for the purposes stipulated
under this Act and not for any other intent such as school ranking and advertisement.

SEC. 12. Penalties. - Any official, employee, or teacher who violates or causes the
violation of the provisions of this Act, or commits or causes to commit acts of dishonesty or
misconduct related to the performance of their duties in the administration of the NCAE shall
be administratively dealt with in accordance with existing civil service laws, rules and
regulations.

Students who commit or cause the commission of any act of dishonesty or misconduct
concerning their application to or in taking the NCAE shall be barred from further taking the
examination and the correction of their examination papers shall be withheld without
prejudice to any disciplinary administrative action that may be taken against them in
accordance with existing rules and regulations of the DepED.

SEC. 13. Appropriation. - The amount necessary to cover the implementation of this
Act shall be charged against the appropriation of the DepED for the conduct of the NCAE
under the current General Appropriations Act. Thereafter, such sums as may be necessary for
the continued implementation of this Act shall be included in the annual General
Appropriations Act.



SEC. 14. Implementing Rules and Regulations. ~ Within ninety (90) days after the
effectivity of this Act, the Secretary of Education shall promulgate the rules and regulations
implementing the provisions of this Act: Provided, That the Secretary of Education may, as
may be deemed proper and necessary, issue supplementary instructions or amendments to
any provisions of the rules and regulations implementing this Act: Provided, further, That the
implementing rules and regulations issued pursuant to this section and any supplementary
issuance thereof shall take effect fifteen (15) days after publication in a newspaper of general
circulation.

SEC. 15. Separability Clause. — If any provision of this Act is declared
unconstitutional, the remainder of this Act or provisions not affected thereby shall remain in
full force and effect.

SEC. 16. Repealing Clause. ~ All laws, decrees, orders, rules and regulations or parts
thereof contrary to or inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed,
amended, or modified accordingly.

17.
in the Official G

fectivity. ~ This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication
tte or in a newspaper of general circulation.

Approved,