Mass promotion is not allowed

Education Secretary Leonor Briones said that private schools are “not encouraged” to practice mass promotion or giving students automatic passing grades amid COVID-19 pandemic.

Briones said that the DepEd does not allow mass promotion in public schools.

“Our existing policy against it still holds,” Briones said.

Earlier, the Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU) announced that eligible non-graduating students will receive a passing mark instead of their letter grades and will be automatically promoted to the next school year – including those in probation.

In a statement, ADMU said passing the students “is the most humane way of dealing with student grades under the circumstances that we are in, where it is difficult and unfair to make a judgment of failure considering that the students have not been given the benefit of the full semester to improve their performance.”

Briones said that most private schools have the autonomy to make and adjust their school policies.

“They have their own operations manuals and majority of these schools base their policies on their respective school standing and situation,” she explained.

“We do not want to encourage all private schools to do the same [mass promotion] but we also acknowledge that not all schools are the same and they have their different situations,” she added.

Briones reiterated that the DepEd does not have a mass promotion policy that applies to public schools.

“In public schools, we do not pass the students automatically,” Briones said.

“We’re thinking of ways to help those who may not make the cut,” she added.

Briones said that DepEd “strongly opposes” any act to allow mass promotion of students because the “the law is clear as to the number of days of face-to-face contact between teachers and students.”

Briones added that DepEd “might be held liable” if the number of school days mandated by law is violated.