The Senate committee on basic education, arts and culture is studying the assessment by the Department of Education showing 99 percent of students got passing marks despite the suspension of face-to-face classes because of the pandemic.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, committee chairman, admitted that he was ''surprised'' with the assessment of the DepEd.

"The important question here is what did the students learn?," he said at the ''Laging Handa'' virtual forum Saturday.

Gatchalian said only 40 percent passed during the national achievement test that was done when students were still attending face-to-face classes before the pandemic spread.

"When we did not yet have the pandemic, the national achievement test (NAT) was low. That is why I was surprised with the 90 to 99 percent, I am happy because 99 percent have passed but if you compare this to NAT, the 40 percent is very far from 99 percent," he said.

"It is very important for us to have a real assessment to determine the real capacity of our students. Our committee are carefully studying the assessment made by the DepEd to make sure it is right and accurate," he added.

Gatchalian stressed the need to investigate about alleged selling of answers, or those who offer to answer the modules for payment.

"There are news about "answer for sale"... people who offer to answer the modules and they will be paid, the modules will be answered by other people. These are things that should be investigated and checked if it is actually happening in schools," he said. Robina Asido/DMS