By Estanislao C. Albano Jr.
With the finding of the Philippine Statistics Authority that 18 M high school graduates from 2019 to 2024 are functionally illiterate, mass promotion or the practice of passing learners who have not attained the competencies prescribed by the curriculum for their current grade was pervasive during the terms of former Education Secretaries Leonor Briones and Sara Duterte. The Grade 6 reading standard in the English subject in the K to 12 Curriculum is equivalent to the new PSA definition for functional literacy.
What bears watching now is if Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara will also allow the practice which has brought the country’s basic education to its knees to prevail during his term. With the school year already over, if the DepEd were only transparent, the question has already been answered because under DepEd Order No. 8, series of 2015, DepEd’s classroom assessment policy guidelines, students who fail in at least three subjects are automatically retained in the grade.
However, this policy is just on paper – even during the time of former Secretary Armin Luistro who issued it. More so during the watches of Briones and Duterte when the elementary level completion rate or “percentage of students who finish a specific level of education within the required number of years” reached near perfection at 99.83 percent in SY 2021-2022 and 99.56 percent in SY 2022-2023. Thus there is a need to ascertain Angara’s position on the issue.
Going by Angara’s deafening silence on the recommendation of his former fellow commissioners in the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) in their EDCOM II Year Two Report that students “with extremely low scores even after attending the learning camps and being provided with additional support” should be retained, the signs that the DepEd has already started to enforce the retention policy of DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015 this school year are not good.
However, for conclusive proofs on what direction Angara will take the DepEd vis-à-vis the practice of mass promotion, the country will have to wait till the end of the summer remediation programs to see if under his leadership, only the learners who pass the activities will be promoted. Here are some of the 2025 Summer programs of the DepEd that will betray Angara’s stance on the mass promotion practice:
First, the Literacy Remediation Program for Grade 3 learners identified as Low Emerging in the Comprehensive Rapid Literacy Assessment (CRLA) End-of-School-Year 2024-2025 results. Per CRLA description, Low Emerging learners are practically illiterate.
It is implied that by the end of the remediation activity, the reading laggards will be able to read so the question is what will the DepEd do if at the end of the summer, the learners could not still read. In the event the DepEd passes them, it will be a case of mass promotion because under the K to 12 Curriculum, pupils are supposed to be reading in English and in Filipino with comprehension by the end of Grade 3.
Second, the Summer Academic Remedial Program for Grades 4 to 12 learners who failed in not more than two subjects. According to DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015, the students must pass the subjects they failed during the summer remedials otherwise they will be retained. However, through DepEd Order No. 13, s. 2018, Briones amended the policy to the effect that once a learner who failed in not more than two subjects attends the summer remedial, he or she could already be promoted to the next grade whether or not he or she hurdles the remedial. If Angara follows DepEd Order No. 13, s. 2018, then that is a greenlight to mass promotion.
Third, the Regional Remediation Programs which provide reading and Math support to Grades 4 to 12 learners “to ensure that learners can progress to the next grade level with the necessary competencies.” If by the end of the summer program, these learners fail to attain the targeted competencies but just like in previous years, the DepEd will still pass them to the next grade, it will be very clear that under the leadership of Angara, the mass promotion practice will still be reigning supreme. **
