5 suspended over NAT leak
MANGALDAN—The five head teachers here who were implicated in the purported leakage of test questions in the National Achievement Test for Grade VI pupils were slapped with a 90-day preventive suspension by the Department of Education (DepEd).
DepEd Regional Director Ligaya Miguel imposed the preventive suspension pending the formal investigation of the case by the legal divisions of DepEd regional and central offices.
The head teachers, all under Mangaldan District 1 of Pangasinan II Division, will not receive their pay for the duration of their suspension.
Those suspended, whose names are being withheld pending the investigation, have been temporarily replaced to maintain the school schedule.
Pangasinan II Division Superintendent Viraluz Raguindin said the alleged offense constitutes cheating or a clear case of dishonesty which is punishable by dismissal from the service even if it is just a first offense.
In addition, Raguindin said the five are facing an administrative case for serious breach of security of a nationally-supervised examination given by DepEd.
The case stemmed from the seizure by the Mangaldan police of reproduced NAT test questions from the hands of eight teachers, all of whom are serving as class advisers, while they were at the faculty room of the Mangaldan Central School in the afternoon March 11, days prior to the NAT test nationwide.
The class advisers were allegedly set to use the NAT test questions in reviewing their pupils to prepare them for the NAT the following week.
The NAT is being implemented by the National Education Testing Center to evaluate whether Grade VI pupils from public elementary schools nationwide are ready to move to the high school level.
Raguindin admitted that she feels both embarrassed and disappointed by the incident, but stressed that the matter is now in the hands of the investigating committee.
Students of Mangaldan were allowed to take the NAT test since they were not found to be directly involved in the suspected irregularity.
However, Raguindin said the students’ NAT examination test results will still be evaluated to determine if they had benefited from the leaked NAT test questions.
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