The Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) has called on the Department of Education (DepEd) to immediately end what it described as “mass promotion” practices, warning that the policy has contributed to steep declines in learner proficiency across key grade levels.

In its final report on basic education released on Monday, Jan. 26, EDCOM II said national assessment results show that many Filipino learners are being promoted despite failing to master foundational competencies in literacy and numeracy.

“DepEd must end ‘mass promotion’ practices without delay, and amend its policies to ensure genuine support for vulnerable learners,” it recommended.

EDCOM II cited results from the National Achievement Test (NAT) and other standardized assessments, which show proficiency declining sharply as learners move up the grade levels. 

The report noted that while about 30 percent of learners in Grade 3 are considered proficient to highly proficient, the proportion drops significantly in higher grades.

“Notably, ‘nearly proficient’ is what DepEd considers as students meeting the ‘minimum skills’ for that key stage,” it stated.

The report said proficiency drops sharply by Grade 6, with only 19.56 percent of learners meeting proficiency, a figure that declines further as students move into secondary school.

It added proficiency declines further in Grades 10 and 12, with only 0.74 percent and 0.4 percent of learners reaching proficiency in secondary school.

EDCOM II said the findings underscore the consequences of routinely advancing learners to the next grade level despite low mastery.

“These findings underscore the severe challenges faced by learners as they move across grade levels, highlighting the possible consequences of ‘mass promotion’ practices.”

Also, the commission pointed to beginning-of-school-year assessments conducted in School Year 2024–2025, which revealed widespread reading difficulties across grade levels.

“As much as 88% of students across all grade levels are not ‘grade-level ready’ in reading at the beginning of the school year,” EDCOM II stated.

Among junior high school learners, the report said a significant proportion are reading far below expected levels.

“Critically, the data likewise shows that 40–52% of students across Junior High School are at least two grade levels down in reading based on the Phil-IRI assessment,” it said.

“Again, these evince the urgency of addressing ‘mass promotion’ and the rolling out of well-designed interventions to address literacy gaps at the secondary level, understanding that literacy is the gateway to learning numeracy, and other competencies across subjects,” it added.

EDCOM II warned that continuing mass promotion weakens incentives for early remediation and limits teachers’ ability to address learning gaps.

“The system currently sends contradictory signals when assessments indicate very low mastery but learners are still routinely advanced to the next grade level,” it noted.

“This weakens incentives for early remediation, undermines the integrity of progression, and impedes teachers from addressing learning gaps as they emerge.”

It said that the education department must urgently revisit its policies on grade progression and retention to prevent further erosion of learning outcomes.

“DepEd must urgently revisit its policy on grade transmutation and retention, and revise targets that unintendedly promote ‘mass promotion.’”