TL;DR: DepEd has been dismantling honour ranking for a decade. DepEd Order No. 36, s. 2016 ended valedictorian and salutatorian and replaced ranked placement with three honours tiers. DepEd Order No. 015, s. 2026 repealed that order and removed the tiers too. In public schools from school year 2026-2027 there is one Academic Excellence Award, awardees are listed alphabetically, and a learner's actual academic rank is released only through a written request for certification.
If you came here looking for the guidelines that govern the ranking of honours, the honest answer is that the guidelines exist mainly to explain why there is no ranking. That is not evasion; it is the substance of the policy, and it has been the direction of travel since 2016.
The Three Stages of Removal
Before 2016. Schools produced a ranked list. Valedictorian, salutatorian, honourable mentions in order. Announcements were made in advance of graduation, and the ordering was itself the recognition.
DepEd Order No. 36, s. 2016. This replaced ranked placement with threshold categories. Learners who attained a general average of at least 90 with a passing final grade in all learning areas received an Academic Excellence Award in one of three bands: With Honors at 90 to 94, With High Honors at 95 to 97, With Highest Honors at 98 to 100. Valedictorian and salutatorian were discontinued.
The effect on school practice was spelled out two years later, in DepEd Order No. 11, s. 2018, which noted in passing that "the traditional practice of ranking of honors, particularly the instruction to announce the list of honors 15 days prior to graduation is no longer applicable and deemed unnecessary as a consequence of the implementation of DO No. 36, s. 2016."
DepEd Order No. 015, s. 2026. Signed 4 June 2026 and effective from school year 2026-2027, this repealed DO 36, s. 2016 outright. The three tiers went with it. What replaced them is one award with three conditions:
- a general average of at least 90;
- no final grade lower than 80 in any learning area;
- no derogatory records or recorded disciplinary cases within the school year.
Awardees are listed alphabetically, and the order states the reason on the record: to promote fairness and minimise undue competition. Our companion guide on the averages DepEd actually requires works through the three conditions in detail.
One award still turns on being first. Excellence in a Specific Learning Area goes to the learner in the batch with the highest final grade in a learning area, provided that grade is at least 90, with all learners recognised in the event of a tie. For Grades 4 to 10 it is given per learning area; for Grades 11 and 12, per core subject and per elective cluster, provided the learner took at least three electives in that cluster or all the electives the school offers in it.
Where Rank Still Lives
The rank has not been abolished as a fact, only as a public title. Paragraph 76 of the order:
"Schools may issue a certification of actual academic rank upon formal written request to support college applications or other academic requirements."
So if a university, scholarship board or foreign institution asks for class standing, the route is a written request to the school. Three things follow from the wording:
- It has to be in writing. A verbal ask at the registrar's counter is not what the provision contemplates.
- It is a certification, not a card entry. The rank does not appear on SF9, the learner's progress report, or on SF10, the permanent academic record.
- The school computes it from its own records. Which is why the underlying records, and their accuracy, matter more than the ceremony.
Who Actually Decides, and How
Recognition is a documented school process with named responsibilities, not a principal's judgement call. Annex H of the order sets it out.
The Awards Committee. Each school organises one at the beginning of the school year for each grade level; small schools may organise a single committee. Composition rules:
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Size | At least three qualified members from the teaching staff, kept to an odd number |
| Mandatory member | A guidance counsellor or designated teacher |
| Chairperson | May be a teacher, department head, grade-level chairperson or curriculum head |
| Conflict of interest | Members must not be related within the second degree of consanguinity or affinity to any candidate |
The committee establishes the processes, timelines and criteria for each award, develops the rubrics, and secures the school head's approval.
The timeline. The order attaches indicative months to each stage.
| Stage | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Beginning of the school year | May to August | Criteria and rubrics set and approved; communicated to learners, parents and stakeholders during the opening period or not later than the end of Term 1, with acknowledgment or conformance from parents or guardians |
| Middle of Term 3 | February | Class advisers and club moderators identify and endorse qualified nominees; the committee validates submitted documents and portfolios |
| End of Term 3 | March | Academic deliberations; results reviewed, finalised and submitted to the school head for approval; final list announced, observing data privacy |
That first row is a right, not a courtesy. If your school has not told you the criteria by the end of Term 1, that is a gap you can raise while it still matters, rather than in March when the list is being finalised.
The evidence used. For Academic Excellence Awards the committee works from SF9 and SF10 as primary references. For other awards it works from verified portfolios: certificates, awards, reports and relevant evidence. Deliberation results must be documented, signed by the committee members and certified by the school head or principal.
Approval and inhibition. The school head approves the final list on the committee's recommendation. Where the school head is related within the second degree to a candidate, they must inhibit, and the next ranking official approves instead.
If You Think the Outcome Is Wrong
There is a formal route with a short clock.
- The protest is filed by the learner, with a parent or guardian, to the school head.
- Within five working days of the announcement of awardees.
- The school head acts within two working days of filing, taking the Awards Committee's recommendations into account.
- Everything is documented.
Five working days is not long. If a result looks wrong on announcement day, get the specifics that same week: the final grades in every learning area, the computed general average, and the criteria that were communicated at the start of the year. If the dispute is about the underlying grades rather than the award, the arithmetic behind them is covered in our guide to computing DepEd grades.
The Physical Awards, Since People Ask
The order is unusually specific here, which is useful if you are checking whether your school is following it. Awardees receive certificates, medals or plaques bearing the official school or DepEd seal. All major awards are accompanied by a gold medal, with the DepEd seal, a diameter of 6 centimetres, a weight of 30 grams, and a 1-inch gold ribbon. Certificates must state the specific award, with the date and venue of the awarding ceremony.
Awards from external sponsors, partners or donors are regulated by the school, must comply with DepEd policies and be consistent with the DepEd vision, mission and core values, and must be named after the trait, value or achievement recognised, or after an esteemed person who is deceased.
What This Means for Families
- Stop looking for a rank on the report card. It is not there by design, and its absence is not an oversight by the school.
- Ask for the certification early if a college application needs it. It is a written request with a turnaround, not something to arrange the week a deadline lands.
- Read the criteria when they are issued, not when the list comes out. The committee is required to communicate them by the end of Term 1.
- Private schools are a separate question. The current guidelines are required for public schools and only encouraged for private ones, so a private school may keep valedictorian, keep the three tiers, or design something of its own. Its handbook governs.
- Do not carry the assumptions into college. Latin honours in higher education run on entirely different rules; see our Latin honours requirements guide.
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 issuance page)
- DepEd Order No. 015, s. 2026 — full text PDF, including Annex H on awards, the Awards Committee and protests
- DepEd Order No. 36, s. 2016 — Policy Guidelines on Awards and Recognition for the K to 12 Basic Education Program, repealed by DO 015, s. 2026
- DepEd Order No. 11, s. 2018 — Guidelines on the Preparation and Checking of School Forms (official issuance page)
- SchoolFinderPH — With Honors: The Averages DepEd Actually Requires
Comparing schools for next school year? Use our search tool to browse schools across the Philippines by location, tuition and programme.
