TL;DR: DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015, "Policy Guidelines on Classroom Assessment for the K to 12 Basic Education Program," is repealed. Paragraph 6 of DepEd Order No. 015, s. 2026 repeals it by name, together with DO No. 36, s. 2016 on awards, and applies from school year 2026-2027 in all public elementary and secondary schools. Three things DO 8 was famous for are gone: the raw-60-transmutes-to-75 table, the 60 floor grade, and the Written Work / Performance Tasks / Quarterly Assessment component names. One thing survives: DO 015 paragraph 49 keeps DO 8's weights for Grade 12 in SY 2026-2027, because that cohort has not moved to the Strengthened SHS Curriculum. Most material online still describes DO 8 as current. It is not.
If you searched "DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015," you almost certainly landed on pages that present it as the live assessment policy. That was true for eleven school years and stopped being true in June 2026. This guide does the thing those pages do not: it sets out what DO 8 actually said, names the order that governs each of its rules now, and flags the one place where the repealed order still supplies a number. For the replacement policy in full, see our guide to DepEd's new grading system; for how a grade is computed today, see the DepEd grading system guide.
Is DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015 Still in Force?
No. The repeal is explicit rather than implied. Paragraph 6 of DepEd Order No. 015, s. 2026, "Revised Guidelines on Classroom Assessment, Grading System, and Awards and Recognition for the K to 12 Basic Education Program," states that the Order repeals DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015 and DepEd Order No. 36, s. 2016, and adds the standard catch-all that all other issuances inconsistent with it are repealed, rescinded or modified accordingly.
The order was signed by Education Secretary Sonny Angara on 4 June 2026. Paragraph 3 says the guidelines are implemented starting school year 2026-2027 in all public elementary and secondary schools nationwide, consistent with the phased implementation of the revised curriculum. Paragraph 7 sets the legal effectivity: upon approval and issuance, and fifteen days after publication in the Official Gazette or a newspaper of general circulation and filing with the Office of the National Administrative Register at the University of the Philippines Law Center.
Disclaimer: implementation is phased by grade level and key stage. Confirm with your child's school which rules apply to their specific grade this school year rather than assuming the newest order covers everyone at once.
What Did DO 8, s. 2015 Actually Say?
It was the rulebook for classroom assessment across Grades 1 to 12 from SY 2015-2016 onward. Four provisions did most of the work, and those four are the ones people are usually looking for when they search the order number.
| Provision in DO 8, s. 2015 | What it said | Status now |
|---|---|---|
| Summative components | Written Work (WW), Performance Tasks (PT), Quarterly Assessment (QA) | Renamed and reweighted by DO 015, s. 2026 |
| Passing threshold | Minimum grade to pass a learning area is 60, transmuted to 75 on the report card | Replaced; raw 70 transmutes to 75 in SY 2026-2027, then no transmutation |
| Floor grade | 60 is the lowest mark that can appear for Quarterly and Final Grades | Not carried forward as a floor in DO 015 |
| Kindergarten | Checklists and anecdotal records instead of numerical grades | Extended upward into descriptive grading for Key Stage 1 |
On the passing threshold, the order's own wording is unambiguous: the minimum grade needed to pass a specific learning area is 60, which is transmuted to 75 in the report card, and the lowest mark that can appear on the report card is 60 for Quarterly Grades and Final Grades. That single sentence is the source of the long-running complaint that a learner demonstrating 60 per cent of the standard could still show a passing 75 to parents.
What Were the Old Component Weights?
DO 8's Table 4 set the weights for Grades 1 to 10 by subject group, and Table 5 set a separate schedule for Senior High School. These are the tables still circulating in e-class-record templates and seminar decks.
| Grades 1-10 subject group | Written Work | Performance Tasks | Quarterly Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Languages, Araling Panlipunan, EsP | 30% | 50% | 20% |
| Science, Mathematics | 40% | 40% | 20% |
| MAPEH, EPP, TLE | 20% | 60% | 20% |
For Senior High School, DO 8's Table 5 set core subjects at 25 per cent Written Work, 50 per cent Performance Tasks and 25 per cent Quarterly Assessment, with different splits for academic-track subjects, work immersion and research, and for the Technical-Vocational-Livelihood, Sports and Arts and Design tracks.
What Are the New Weights Under DO 015, s. 2026?
The components were renamed as well as reweighted, which is why a direct row-by-row comparison misleads. DO 015 uses Written or Oral Works (WWs), Product or Performance Tasks (PTs) and Examinations (EXs), the last of which covers both the Summative Tests and the Term Examination administered within a term. Within the Examinations component, the order splits the weight 30 per cent for the first Summative Test, 30 per cent for the second, and 40 per cent for the Term Examination.
| Key Stage 2-3 subject group | WWs | PTs | EXs |
|---|---|---|---|
| English, Filipino, Mathematics, Science, Araling Panlipunan, GMRC / Values Education | 20% | 50% | 30% |
| EPP / TLE, and MAPEH | 20% | 60% | 20% |
For Senior High School under the Strengthened SHS Curriculum, DO 015 sets core subjects and other academic electives at 20 / 50 / 30, TechPro electives at 15 / 65 / 20, and Work Immersion at 20 per cent Written or Oral Works and 80 per cent Product or Performance Tasks with no Examinations component at all.
The shape of the change is consistent: more weight on what a learner produces and demonstrates, and a smaller share resting on a single end-of-term test.
Where Does DO 8, s. 2015 Still Apply?
This is the detail almost every summary misses, and it is the reason a repealed order is still worth reading this school year.
Paragraph 49 of DO 015, s. 2026 states that for Senior High School Grade 12, which has not yet implemented the Strengthened SHS Curriculum for SY 2026-2027, the weights in DO No. 8, s. 2015 shall apply together with the adjusted transmutation table. Grade 12 learners in SY 2026-2027 started Grade 11 under the old strand-based curriculum, so DepEd is not switching their assessment weights mid-programme. See our Strengthened SHS curriculum guide for which cohort sits under which curriculum.
So in SY 2026-2027 a single school can be running three different sets of rules at once: descriptive grading for Kindergarten and Grade 1, the new DO 015 weights with an adjusted transmutation table for Grades 2 to 11, and DO 8's weights with the adjusted table for Grade 12. If a teacher tells you they are "still on DO 8," that may be correct for the class they teach and wrong for the class next door.
Disclaimer: which set applies depends on the learner's grade level and curriculum cohort. Ask the class adviser or registrar directly rather than inferring it from the school's general practice.
What Happened to Transmutation?
DO 015 phases it out in two steps rather than deleting it overnight.
- SY 2026-2027. Paragraph 48 provides for an adjusted transmutation table as a transition toward zero-based grading, in which a raw grade of 70 corresponds to a transmuted passing grade of 75, applied uniformly across applicable grade levels. That is a ten-point tightening from DO 8's 60.
- SY 2027-2028 onward. Paragraph 50 provides that a zero-based grading system applies for Key Stages 2 to 4. Term Grades come directly from the computed Initial Grades with no transmutation, and 75 is the minimum passing grade.
For the bracket-by-bracket tables on both sides of that change, see our transmutation table guide.
How Do You Check This Yourself?
You do not have to take a blog's word for it, and for anything with consequences you should not.
- Open the replacing order, not the summary. DO 015, s. 2026 is published on deped.gov.ph with a downloadable PDF. The repealing clause is paragraph 6, on the second page of the order proper, before the enclosure begins.
- Read the repealing clause for names, not just the catch-all. DO 015 names DO 8, s. 2015 and DO 36, s. 2016 specifically. Named repeals are unambiguous; the "all issuances inconsistent herewith" sentence is not, and is where most disputes start.
- Check the scope paragraph before assuming coverage. Paragraph 3 covers public schools; paragraph 4 treats non-DepEd schools as encouraged rather than required.
- Look for carve-outs deeper in the enclosure. Paragraph 49's Grade 12 exception sits well past the repealing clause, which is exactly why summaries drop it.
Our guide on how to find and read DepEd orders walks through the issuance archive and the numbering convention if you have not used them before.
What Should Teachers and Parents Do Now?
- Stop using undated DO 8 templates. E-class records and grade-computation sheets built on the 30/50/20 and 40/40/20 splits produce the wrong number for most grade levels this year.
- Confirm your grade level's weight table in writing. Divisions issue their own implementing memoranda, and the transition year is exactly when local guidance matters most.
- Expect the report-card number to sit closer to raw performance. The transmutation floor rose this year and disappears next year for Grades 4 to 12.
- If you are quoting a rule in a dispute, cite DO 015, s. 2026 with the paragraph number, not a blog summary, and ask your Schools Division Office for its own implementing memo.
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Sources
- DepEd Order No. 015, s. 2026 — Revised Guidelines on Classroom Assessment, Grading System, and Awards and Recognition for the K to 12 Basic Education Program (official)
- DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015 — Policy Guidelines on Classroom Assessment for the K to 12 Basic Education Program (official, repealed)
- DepEd Order No. 017, s. 2026 — Strengthened Senior High School Curriculum (official)
- Paragraph and table references above were read directly from the published PDFs of DO 015, s. 2026 and DO 8, s. 2015 on deped.gov.ph. Both are scanned documents; paragraph numbers are quoted as printed in the enclosures.
- SchoolFinderPH — DepEd's New Grading System Under MATATAG
- SchoolFinderPH — DepEd Grading System Guide
- SchoolFinderPH — DepEd Transmutation Table Explained
