Tacloban City (September 3) -- Department of Education (DepEd) Region 8 Director Sol F. Matugas, together with several other DepEd Superintendent and principals, has left for Manila to attend the awarding rites of the National Achievement Test 2009 Top Achievers.

In a phone patch interview on Wednesday, Director Matugas informed the Philippine Information Agency that the DepEd Region 8 officials have been invited to attend the awarding ceremonies on September 3, at 10:00 o'clock in the morning at the at the Pearl Hall, SEAMEO INNOTECH Regional Center, Commonwealth Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City.

Director Matugas said as to who the top achievers are and what the ranking is, she has no idea because even Secretary Lapus has been mum about the results.

"What I know is that we have been instructed to come with an all-white dress code," Director Matugas who has led Region 8 in consistently topping the NAT exams for about seven years already, said.

Saying that she has butterflies in her stomach already, Director Matugas intimated that she is anxious to know the results. Come what may, the good director who has been introduced several times by President Arroyo, as the best DepEd Director, is proud of the administrators and teachers of Eastern Visayas who have been doing their work more than what was expected of them.

Director Matugas has good reason to be proud of Region 8. Young Grade Six public school students from Region 8 got ten of the top twenty slots in the March 2007 National Achievement Test taken by some 1.6 million grade six students from 29,962 public schools nationwide, and which covered English, Science, Math, Filipino and HEKASI.

In the 2006 National Achievement Test (NAT) for first year level, Rizal National High School located in Tomas Oppus, Southern Leyte topped the diagnostic test nationwide. This was attributed to the diligence and activeness of the members of the faculty and students in said institution.

That same year, the Southern Leyte Division was adjudged as the number one schools division nationwide, as it garnered a total of 68.07 mean percent of score (MPS) besting others.

Director Matugas disclosed that the Department of Education through the National Education Testing Center has dubbed the awarding ceremony as "Moving Towards Excellence thru the National Achievement Test (NAT)."