By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
In an obvious attempt to deflect blame, in an interview on February 3, 2026, Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara insisted that the policies perceived to be promoting mass promotion are not intentionally doing so. He specified the transmutation policy in the grading system (DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015) which inflates grades and the policy wherein teachers are made to tutor students they fail.
Angara said there is a need to really study the former policy because college entrance tests and international student assessments do not have a similar mechanism. He was trying to say that then Secretary Armin Luistro who issued DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015 had no idea that the policy would get students in trouble in college entrance examinations when it is common knowledge college entrance tests do not give handicaps.
Angara is also saying that Secretary Leonor Briones was unaware the Programme for International Student Assessments (PISA) does not give any bonus scores which of course is ridiculous. But despite that knowledge, instead of aligning the grading system of the country with international student assessment practices by deleting the transmutation policy, Briones ironically further weakened the grading system. She removed the condition for students who fail in not more than two subjects to be promoted to the next grade which is that they must pass the subjects in the summer remedials. DepEd Order No. 13, s. 2018, provides that regardless of the results of the summer remedials, the students could enroll in the next grade in the forthcoming school year.
On its own, it is clear as daylight that the grade transmutation policy is intended to achieve the ends of mass promotion because under the old grading system, a raw score of 60 is equivalent to a grade of 60 while with the transmutation policy, a raw score of 60 is converted to 75. With DepEd Order No. 13, s. 2018, which opened the grading system even wider for laggards, the intent of the DepEd to as much as possible make all students pass become even more obvious.
As for the arrangement where teachers tutor students they fail, it is not covered by a formal policy. The applicable policy on the conduct of summer remedials is DepEd Order No. 13, s. 2018 and it says that the school head identifies expert teachers to hold the remedials. No mention of the teachers who fail their students handling the remedials themselves.
The guidelines for the recent National Learning Camps (NLCs) specifically DepEd Order No. 014, s. 2023, and DepEd Order No. 010, s. 2025, both say that participation of teachers in the NLC is voluntary. Both issuances also did away with or amended policies which are inconsistent with them.
It is relevant that when Undersecretary and Spokesperson Annalyn Sevilla responded to allegations that mass promotion was one of the reasons the country failed in the PISA on “TV Patrol” on December 19, 2019, she confirmed the existence of the alleged policy. She implied that one reason laggards are being passed to the next grade is that some teachers do not want to tutor the failing students during summer as they are not given any incentive for the tutorial work on top their regular pay during the summer break.
The statement of Sevilla backs the claim of some teachers that there is an unwritten policy compelling teachers who fail students to tutor the latter during the summer vacation without pay. The accusation was first made in the “Pag-asa sa Pagbasa,” the I-Witness documentary on the 29 Grade 7 non-readers in the Sauyo High School in SY 2018-2019 shown over GMA 7 on September 1, 2018. The DepEd official who gave the side of the agency in the documentary was mum on the accusation.
When an unwritten policy contradicts the formal policy, it is certain that the former which in this case coerces teachers to pass failing students is deliberate. Violating the rights of teachers under the law and DepEd issuances by forcing them to pass poor performing students against their better judgement could never be accidental – and it is even criminal.**
