A total of 1, 960 examinees out of 2,000 or 98% took the 1st ever National Qualifying Examinations for School Heads (NQESH) for DepEd-ARMM. This figure signifies the overwhelming support of school heads and their very positive attitude to this very important reform initiative aimed at improving the competence and performance of school heads in ARMM by providing them appropriate training designs after getting the exam results.
Thanks also to the support of Civil Society Organizations who acted as proctors and examiners and Assy Samira Gutoc-Tomawis and Assy Dyan Jumaide, NQESH would not have been a success.
The 3 hour and 15 minute examinations was generally calm and peaceful. With the examinees experiencing a little bit of anxiety, but relief after taking the examinations.
Moreover, NQESH in DepEd-ARMM has Four-fold objectives:
a. Up to national standards - Regardless of how the incumbents were promoted, the NQESH is to determine how many of these school and district managers are up to the national standards. Therefore requires no additional professional development interventions.
b. Training needs analysis - The results will inform future training programs for school and district managers, both funded by DepEd-ARMM and through donor projects.
c. Pool of qualifiers - The NQESH result creates a pool of qualifiers – TICs qualifiers for promotion to full-fledged HTs, HTs to Principals, and Principals to District Supervisors.
d. Model for future replication – That the NQESH can be done in and relevant to the ARMM education by improving the quality of school and district managers.
