Transmutation is ending — what applies this year, and what comes next
Transmutation did not survive DepEd Order No. 15, s. 2026 unchanged, and it is not staying. There are three stages, and knowing which one you are in decides whether your class record is computing correctly.
| School year | What applies | What it means for your record |
|---|---|---|
| Before SY 2026–2027 | The previous transmutation table | Any template built then is now out of date |
| SY 2026–2027 (this year) | An adjusted table: an initial grade of 70.00 corresponds to a transmuted 75, and 60 remains the minimum reportable grade | Transmutation still happens — but with different numbers |
| From SY 2027–2028 | Transmutation removed for Grades 4–12: a raw 75 stands as a final 75 | The step disappears from the computation |
The middle row is where most errors live this year. A template carried over from last year still transmutes, still produces plausible-looking grades, and is wrong by a small margin on every learner — small enough that nobody notices until an award list or a promotion decision turns on it.
The two-minute check
Do not audit the whole table. Test one value: enter an initial grade of 70.00 and see what your record reports. Under this year’s adjusted table it must come out as 75. If it produces anything else, your template is on the old table, and every grade it has computed this year needs recomputing.
Then check the floor: the lowest grade your record will report should be 60, not zero and not the raw percentage.
Why it is being removed at all
Transmutation was introduced to smooth raw scores into a reportable scale. In practice it also lifted low raw performance into passing territory, which made grades harder to compare between schools and made it harder to see who actually needed help. Removing it for Grades 4–12 from SY 2027–2028 means the number on the report card is the number the learner earned — which raises the stakes on the quality of your assessments, since nothing downstream will soften a badly built test.
The practical preparation is not administrative, it is instructional: tests that match what was taught, item counts proportional to teaching time, and a blueprint behind every summative test. If your assessments are already built that way, the removal will barely move your grades. If they are not, next year is when that becomes visible.
Grade 12 this year
Grade 12 in SY 2026–2027 keeps its previous weights and two-quarter structure, but it does use this year’s adjusted transmutation table. It is the one part of Grade 12 grading that changed, and therefore the one most often missed.