Gatchalian: 'No fail' policy in schools to affect academic performance of children
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said Saturday that he was not in favor of adopting a "no fail" policy in schools as he believed that it would do more harm than good on children.

"Hindi ako sang-ayon diyan dahil may mga bata talagang mahina, halimbawa, sa Math, Reading, o sa Science. Dapat nating malaman ‘yun para matulungan natin sila. Kung ipapasa mo lahat, paano mo malalaman kung saan siya mahina (I am not in favor of that because some children really needed help, for example, in Math, Reading or Science. We should know those so we can help them. If we just pass them, how will we know which subjects they need help with.?” Gatchalian said in a statement.
"Imbes na matulungan natin sila, lalo lang natin silang pahihirapan pag-akyat na sa susunod na baitang. Yung mga pagsasanay sa iba’t-ibang mga subjects ay para malaman kung saan po sila mahina (Instead of helping them, we will only be making things harder for them when they get to the next grade. The activities in every subjects will help them in areas where they are struggling)," he added.
The senators chairs the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture.
Gatchalian pointed out that the goal of continuing education, despite the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation, "is to ensure that the country’s more than 25 million learners in the basic education sector are learning enough and will be adequately prepared for their next level of schooling."
The assessment of learners, he said, would target learners in rolling out remedial programs to address learning gaps and losses.
Learners who proceed to the next grade level without receiving interventions in areas where they are weak will continue underperforming, Gatchalian warned.
Officials from the Department of Education (DepEd) have already rejected the proposal to implement a no-fail policy system.
"Children still need to be graded, (just passing them) it is not good and will not help our students understand that learning requires effort and seriousness so we believe it needs a mark, grading is still numerical," DepEd Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio said earlier.