At the end of the school year, one column decides more than all the others: promoted, or not. DepEd Order No. 15, s. 2026 sets out how that column is filled, what happens to a learner who fails one or two learning areas, and how a Recomputed Final Grade works. It also makes clear that remediation is not supposed to start in April — it is supposed to start in Week 5.
Here is the sequence, in the order an adviser actually meets it.
The 10-second answer: Pass every learning area (75 or higher) and the learner is promoted. Fail one or two and the learner goes to the Summer Remedial Class; the Recomputed Final Grade is the average of the original final grade and the remedial class mark. Fail more than two and the learner is retained. The school decides promotion — the numbers point, they do not rule.
Start in Week 5, not in April
DO 15 sets remediation to begin as early as Week 5 — immediately after the first summative test — for learners consistently performing below expectations across written works, performance tasks, and summative tests. This is the single most useful line in the whole section, and the most ignored.
The practical version: after ST1 is checked and recorded, list the learners who are already below the line, and start something documented. Classroom-based intervention, the ARAL programme, a school-based strategy — the order does not demand a particular method, but it does expect the response to be early and evidenced. For how to make that list run rather than sit in a folder, see checking papers fast enough to act on them and our item analysis guide, which tells you whether a low score is a learner problem or a teaching one.
The timing of ST1 therefore matters beyond grading — see when to give ST1, ST2, and the term examination.
The year-end decision, step by step
1. Every learning area needs a final grade
You cannot evaluate promotion on an incomplete set. A missing final grade is not a fail — it is an unfinished record, and it has to be completed before anything below applies.
2. Count the failed learning areas
A learning area is failed at a final grade below 75. Count them.
| Failed learning areas | What follows |
|---|---|
| None | Promoted |
| One or two | Summer Remedial Class, then a Recomputed Final Grade |
| More than two | Retained |
3. Run the Summer Remedial Class and recompute
For a learner who failed one or two learning areas, the remedial class produces a mark, and the Recomputed Final Grade (RFG) is the average of the original final grade and that remedial mark.
Worked through: a learner ends the year with 71 in Mathematics. The remedial class mark is 81. The RFG is (71 + 81) ÷ 2 = 76 — a pass, and the learner is promoted. Had the remedial mark been 77, the RFG would be 74, and the learner would not have cleared the learning area.
The RFG is what goes on the record for that learning area, and it is issued through a Certificate of Recomputed Final Grade. Prepare it as a document, not as a pencil correction on the report card.
4. The school decides
This is the part worth saying out loud to yourself before you say it to a parent. The order points at an outcome, but promotion also weighs the learner’s progress, readiness, and participation in interventions — and the decision belongs to the school, not to the class record. Your job is an accurate, complete, defensible set of numbers plus the evidence of what you tried. The decision is made with your input, not by your spreadsheet.
Attendance can override everything above
A learner can pass every learning area on paper and still have an attendance problem that changes the outcome: absences beyond 20% of class days mean a failing grade and no credit unless justified, with documented exemptions granted by the School Head. And around 12 absences, the order expects intervention with parents or guardians — early, not at the end of the year. We cover the thresholds and the paperwork in attendance rules on the DepEd report card.
What to document, and when
- Week 5 onward: the list of learners below expectations, and what intervention started. A dated note is enough; nothing is worth less than an undocumented effort.
- Each term: the failing learning areas, and whether the learner recovered. Three terms of evidence is a much stronger case than one panicked summary in April.
- Parent contacts: date, who you spoke to, and what was agreed. This protects the learner and you.
- Year end: final grades, failed areas, remedial marks, RFG computations, and the Certificate of Recomputed Final Grade.
- Retention: the full picture — grades, attendance, interventions attempted, and parent communication.
DO 15 asks that assessment evidence — tools, rubrics, raw scores, and feedback — be kept for at least one school year. Promotion disputes are exactly the scenario that requirement anticipates.
Frequently asked questions
Is a final grade of 74.6 a pass?
Work from the final grade as recorded after transmutation. 74 is a fail and 75 is a pass; do not round an already-rounded grade a second time to reach the line. Our MATATAG grading and transmutation guide shows where rounding properly happens.
What if the learner does not attend the Summer Remedial Class?
There is no remedial mark, so there is no Recomputed Final Grade, and the failed learning area stands. Record the status as pending the remedial class rather than inventing a number, and refer it to the school.
Can a learner be conditionally promoted?
Conditional promotion exists as an outcome in the order’s promotion provisions, and schools apply it with their own documentation. Treat it as a school-level decision with a written basis, not as an adviser’s shortcut for a borderline case.
Does one failed learning area in one term mean the year is lost?
No. Promotion is decided on final grades for the year, not on a single term. A weak Term 1 that is recovered in Terms 2 and 3 can end in a passing final grade — which is the entire argument for starting remediation in Week 5.
Where Skoolari fits
Skoolari’s DepEd mode keeps the whole chain in one place. The class record shows a remediation watch from the first summative test, so the Week 5 list builds itself instead of waiting for you to notice. At year end, the promotion page counts failed learning areas per learner, applies the one-or-two versus more-than-two rule, computes the Recomputed Final Grade from the remedial mark you enter, prints the Certificate of Recomputed Final Grade, and flags attendance cases beside each name — while stating on the page itself that the school makes the promotion decision. Advisers with several sections can print the promotion summaries for all of them in one file. See the plans.
Confirm every threshold and process against the current DepEd issuances and your school’s guidance. Remediation programmes in particular are governed by their own annual orders, and your division’s memo is the version that applies to you.