By Merlina Hernando-Malipot  The Department of Education (DepEd) has officially announced the administration of the 2019 Special Philippine Educational Placement Test (PEPT) this June 9 in schools division nationwide which will be free of charge. In DepEd Memorandum No. 48 series of 2019 signed by Education Secretary Leonor Briones released to all undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, bureau and service directors, regional directors, schools division superintendents, and heads of public and private elementary and secondary schools, the department announced that the administration of the Special PEPT will be in “commemoration of the 121st Philippine Independence Day.” The 2019 Special PEPT, Briones said in the memo, will be administered by DepEd through the Bureau of Education Assessment (BEA), together with the assistance of personnel from schools division offices (SDOs) and schools. The registration started last March 1. The Division Testing Coordinators (DTCs) were also directed to submit the actual number of registrants to BEA on or before April 30. DepEd said that the DTCs shall be in-charge of the evaluation of documents and “shall ensure that the documentary requirements of each registrant is complete.” The documentary requirements include the School Form 10 (Form 137) for secondary students or School Form 9 (Form 138) for elementary pupils; birth certificate or baptismal certificate and ID pictures. Based on DepEd Order No. 55 s. of 2016 or the “Policy Guidelines on the National Assessment of Student Learning for the K to 12 Basic Education Program” DepEd said that those who may register for the PEPT are learners from schools without government permit; learners from non-formal and informal education programs; learners who have incomplete or no record of formal schooling; learners with back subjects; learners who need grade level standard assessment; and learners who are overage for their grade levels. DepEd said that BEA’s authorized forwarder “shall deliver and retrieve the test materials at least a week before and a day after the test administration, respectively, except for the National Capital Region schools divisions which shall be delivered two days before the test administration.” In relation to this, DepEd’s BEA was scheduled to conduct a National Conference on the Evaluation of Documents and Standardized Test Administration – particularly to the newly-designated DTCs last April 10-12 for Luzon Cluster and April 24-26 for the Visayas and Mindanao Clusters. Among those discussed during the conference include the evaluation of documents, standard procedure in test administration, security of test materials, information derived from the individual certificate of rating and financial matters relative to the test administration. PEPT is under the Accreditation and Equivalency Program which aims to retrieve out-of-school youth (OSY) and place them in the formal school system if they so desire. Its results are also used for “validating and accrediting knowledge and skills in academic areas gained through informal and non-formal means for re-entry into formal school, job promotion, entry to job training, for employment and self-fulfillment.”