THE DEPARTMENT of Education is set to conduct the first full remote online examination for this year’s National Qualifying Examination for School Heads for aspiring school heads on July 31, 2022.

This year’s NQESH will be administered online.

The significant advances in the remote proctoring technology of HR Avatar by ASEAMETRICS, a highly secured cloud-based testing system with proven capacity to support high-stake examinations such as the NQESH, will enable DepEd to shift to complete remote video-based testing smoothly.

The Office of the Undersecretary for Human Resource and Organization Development said that the NQESH will employ many firsts in school heads’ assessment history.

Aside from the shift to full remote testing, the test items are aligned with the competencies set out in the Philippine Professional Standards for School Heads or DepEd Order No. 024, s. 2020, and were developed using the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes model.

The test items were developed and validated through DepEd’s partnership with the Philippine Normal University – Research Center for Teacher Quality, with assistance from SiMERR National Research Centre of the University of New England-Australia.

“NQESH will help ensure that DepEd appoints school heads who possess the knowledge and competencies expected in the Career Stage 1 of the PPSSH and who can competently support teachers in their profession,” RCTQ Director Dr. Gina Gonong said.

Liza Manalo-Mapagu, president and CEO of ASEAMETRICS, said that their partnership with DepEd, through HR Avatar US, provides assessment automation from test delivery to report generation. HR Avatar by ASEAMETRICS is a leading online testing management system widely used in many organizations globally and in the Philippines.

Passing the NQESH exam, also known as the Principals’ Test, is one of the requirements for the appointment and reclassification of applicants for principal and assistant principal positions in public elementary and secondary schools.