Policy, purpose, and modernization rationale
- The Board commits to adopting technological modernization and globalization-proof methods in administering the Social Work Licensure Examination through full computerization.
- Full computerization is intended to produce credible, qualitative and efficacious licensure examinations that gain the public trust and faith in the process.
- Full computerization is intended to enable expeditious releases of examination results.
- Full computerization is intended to provide the Board ample time to exercise its regulatory powers and functions.
- The resolution establishes that full computerization covers both the correction and rating of test papers and the use of a question bank from which questions are extracted and randomly arranged by computer.
Legal basis and Commission directive
- The Board is empowered by Section 4, Republic Act No. 4373 to adopt measures that preserve and improve the technical, ethical, and moral standards of Social Work.
- The Board is empowered by Section 6(a) of Presidential Decree No. 223, as amended, to adopt policies to preserve and improve those standards.
- The resolution is adopted under the Board’s quasi-legislative (rulemaking) power under Section 8 of Republic Act No. 4373.
- Res. No. 265, Series of 1993 directed that examinations of professions under the Commission’s jurisdiction and supervision be fully computerized in 1993, except professions with examinees below 1,000, which were to be programmed in 1994.
- The resolution implements full computerization for the Social Work Licensure Examination starting with the June, 1994 schedule.
Coverage: Social Work Licensure Examination
- The resolution applies to the administration of the Social Work Licensure Examination.
- The resolution governs how questions are created, stored in a question bank, extracted, randomized, printed, and packaged for examinees.
- The resolution governs examination operations in the confidential room during question extraction and printing.
- The resolution governs computer and file security for the examination question bank.
Full computerization operation rules
- The Board Member with the assigned subject must frame or formulate his/her own questions or adopt questions supplied by the academe after modifying or reforming them.
- Every question must be appraised by a technical expert, if necessary, for objectivity, validity, reliability, and efficaciousness, and must be unambiguous and definite with only one definite correct answer.
- Questions must be classified by degree of difficulty (easy, average or hard), level of knowledge and proficiency, and type—subjective (problem, drawing, essay) and objective (multiple choice of four (4) or more items).
- The resolution requires that subjects with both objective and subjective questions use a weight proportion of 70% objective and 30% subjective.
- The Board Member assigned to the subject must initially input into the question bank located at the Commission no less than five hundred (500) questions per subject.
- The questions must be based on the syllabus and must build up by no less than three hundred (300) questions for every succeeding examination to reach an optimum ideal number of at least three thousand (3,000) questions.
- Questions in the question bank must be withdrawable or replenishable with updated questions abreast of economic, social, technological, and scientific advances and globalization of the profession.
- Questions once fed into the question bank become the intellectual property of the Commission.
- The Board Member who formulated and inputted questions into the question bank must lose the right to withdraw those questions.
- When a Board Member is no longer a Board Member, the newly appointed Board Member assigned to the subject or the incumbent Board Member reassigned out of rotation by the Chairman must review, reword, or delete questions in the question bank and add new questions.
Random extraction, multiple sets, and confidentiality controls
- The Board Member must randomly extract or withdraw the number of questions required for the subject from the question bank.
- The extracted questions must be randomized to produce at least two (2) sets, where each set has different chronological arrangements of questions for printing and distribution.
- During extraction and printing of questions, and while assembling and packaging questionnaires, authorized persons in the confidential room must not leave until after one (1) hour from the start of the examination for the concerned subject.
- Agents of the NBI, security officers, designated persons, and authorized observers must be stationed outside the confidential room to watch and safeguard the proceedings.
Computer security and scoring method
- Computer programs and files must be ensured to be tamper-free.
- Multiple passwords must be adopted so that no one person has complete control of, or access to, the computer programs and files.
- The resolution requires designation of three (3) responsible key officials to implement the password/access security.
- For objective-type questions (multiple choice), answers must be corrected and rated through the OMR (Optical Mark Reader) Machine.
- For subjective-type questions (problem solving, drawing or essay), answers may be corrected through the OMR or manual process.
Effectivity, dissemination, and publication
- The resolution becomes effective upon approval by the Commission, fifteen (15) days after publication in the Official Gazette or any newspaper of general circulation, whichever is earlier.
- The resolution must be disseminated through school/colleges/universities offering the course of Social Work to all concerned.