The truth about DepEd’s academic awards

THE PEAK of “graduation season” closed the month of May with numerous graduates awarded academic honors. Social media was quick to pick up the contradiction presented by the proliferation of such honors and the low ranking of Filipino students as recorded by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the latest still showing Filipino students among the world’s laggards. 

As doubts about the awards went viral on social media, news focused on the question but failed to clarify the situation. 

Media relies on DepEd as sole source

On May 31, TeleRadyo Serbisyo interviewed Department of Education (DepEd) Assistant Secretary Francis Bringas for DepEd’s comments. From May 31 to June 8, online articles (Philippine Star, ABS-CBN and Manila Bulletin) cited TeleRadyo’s interview. News5’s primetime newscast reported what Bringas said. On June 3, One PH did its own interview with the same DepEd official. 

The message was the same. Bringas explained that in 2016, then DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro issued a memo to change the K-12 academic awarding system which recognized only valedictorian, salutatorian, and the rest of the “Top Ten” students. Bringas described the shift to a “more inclusive” approach allowing for more students to qualify for academic must meet honors — (98-100 grade average for highest honors; 95-97 grade average with high honors; 90-94 with Honors). Bringas said the policy encourages students to “strive even more because they know that they are competing with themselves and not with other learners.” 

Bringas disregarded the comparison with PISA scores, because DepEd used different “parameters” from the international program in assessing students’ classroom performance.    

Real reason 

Only News5 found the real explanation for the proliferation of academic awards. It interviewed a public school teacher who showed DepEd’s grade transmutation table. The information has become a viral post. DepEd’s system transmutes initial grades that raise failing marks into passing grades on report cards. For example, an initial grade of 60-61 (a failing grade) is transmuted to 75 (the passing grade), and middling grades to honors. 

Transmutation of grades is used to address the variables of grading practices among other issues. 

Seeking other sources, asking difficult questions

Nearly all media settled for Bringas’ response and did not interrogate the issue further. Reports accepted the dismissive answer of a DepEd official and did not help the public understand how DepEd’s system presents a false sense of student accomplishment. The transmutation of grades masks the dubious and deceitful measurement of student learning and the awards they are given.

Journalists should not shy away from asking government officials tough questions, especially when these are valid questions already raised in social media. The public deserves to know. Media could have sought other sources and experts outside DepEd for a broader discussion of the transmutation system and its purpose.