The street kid who clambered up the jeep along Quirino Highway, Quezon City had a peculiar way of speaking. “Bili na po kaaayo. Parang awa nyo na poooo. Pambili po ng ‘big eyes’ (bigas)," he pleaded, stringy sampaguita leis dangling from his fingers.
The boy was tall enough to pass for a six- or seven-year-old. He appeared to be of school age, but given his circumstance it didn’t seem like he’d be lugging a school bag anytime soon: “Sige na poooo, ate, kuya. Pambili ng big eyes," he begged. Though his diction is quite unusual, the young sampaguita vendor’s predicament is not. Many children who should be in school are not in school, and those keeping tab on this trend are getting worried. Just last school year, close to two million elementary school-age children did not enroll in elementary school. Department of Education data show that only about 85% of children aged six to 11 went to school during that period. The government hopes to push this participation rate up to 100% by 2015 in keeping with its international commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The MDGs are targets set in 2000 by United Nations member states committed to work towards eliminating poverty by 2015. Among these goals is a pledge to achieve universal primary education. The same education goal is charted in the Arroyo administration’s Medium Term Philippine Development Plan for 2004-2010. No less than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo promised in her 2004 inaugural address that “everyone of school age will be in school" when her term ends in 2010.
Low probability In 2007, the Philippines Midterm Progress Report on the MDGs noted that there is a “low probability" that the Philippines will achieve its goal on primary education by the set deadline. The report published by the National Economic and Development Authority measured access to primary education using indicators such as elementary participation rate (also called net enrolment ratio), cohort survival rate, and primary completion rate. Simply put, these statistics indicate whether children who should be in school are actually in school, and whether these children stay in school long enough till they reach or finish Grade 6. Another MDG indicator, literacy rate, measures the proportion of the population (the proportion of people within the 15-24 age bracket, in MDG’s case) who can read and write. The midterm report reviewed education data from 2000 to 2006 and found a declining trend in the MDG indicators. Net enrolment ratio dropped from 96.77% in SY 2000-2001 to only 84.44% in SY 2005-2006. Completion rate, pegged at 68.68% in SY 2000-2001, initially improved the following school year but fell to 67.99% by SY 2005-2006. At first glance, cohort survival rate seemed to have improved from 69.46% to 70.02% during the same period. However, a closer look showed that the latter percentage was merely continuing a declining trend that began four school years back. Meanwhile, the National Statistics Office’s latest available data showed that literacy rates in the 15-19 and 20-24 age groups worsened in 2003 compared to 1994 rates. “Overall, the country is lagging behind in achieving the MDG target of achieving universal access to primary education," the MDG midterm report concluded.
Elementary Participation, cohort survival and completion rates 2000-2009 | ELEMENTARY | PARTICIPATION RATE | COHORT SURVIVAL RATE | COMPLETION RATE |
| 2000-2001 | 96.77% | 69.46% | 68.68% |
| 2001-2002 | 90.10% | 75.90% | 74.94% |
| 2002-2003 | 90.29% | 72.44% | 71.55% |
| 2003-2004 | 88.74% | 71.84% | 70.24% |
| 2004-2005 | 87.11% | 71.32% | 69.06% |
| 2005-2006 | 84.44% | 70.02% | 67.99% |
| 2006-2007 | 83.22% | 73.43% | 71.72% |
| 2007-2008 | 84.84% | 75.26% | 73.06% |
| 2008-2009 | 85.12% | 75.39% | 73.28% |
| Sources: NEDA, UNDP, DepEd |
Slight improvement, but… The latest statistics from the Department of Education showed a slight improvement in the MDG performance indicators. As of last school year, 85 out of 100 elementary school-age children were enrolled in school; 75 out of 100 pupils who started Grade 1 reached Grade 6, and 73 of them graduated. Compared to data reflected in the 2007 midterm report, cohort survival rates and completion rates grew by small increments between 2006 and 2009. From 73.43% in SY 2006-2007, elementary cohort survival rate went up to 75.39% in SY 2008-2009. Primary completion rates similarly increased from 71.72% to 73.28%. Participation rates over the same period regained momentum after an initial decline, but apparently the latest percentage is still 12 points lower than what it had been way back in SY 2000-2001. For National Institute for Policy Studies executive vice president Juan Miguel Luz, it wasn’t so much of a drop in participation of school-age kids as a question of formula: the participation rates several years ago may not have been that high, to begin with. “In 2002, under then Secretary Edilberto de Jesus, we questioned whether the formula used [to compute participation rate] was accurate. And upon more rigorous application, we found that the participation rate should have been reported as lower," says Luz, a former education undersecretary. Luz suggests that the DepEd should correct its calculations going back up to 15 years. “Once this is done, I suspect that we will see that participation may in fact be improving slightly every year if not holding steady," he adds in an e-mail reply to GMA News Research. As with the participation rate, Luz believes that the other MDG indicators for universal primary education are also holding steady. “But in this world, no improvement means that we are actually falling farther behind compared to the [rest of the] world," he says. “Our movement towards achieving our MDG targets is probably not going to happen by 2015."
Keeping kids in school It’s not a heartening prospect for kids like the young sampaguita vendor on Quirino Highway. “There are diverse reasons why kids who are supposed to be in school are not in school," says Dr. Milwida Guevara, an education reform advocate. “Child labor, distance of school from home, hunger, parents’ inadequate appreciation of the importance of education, loss of interest of children in school due to large classes, lack of money for uniform or dresses and school projects," she enumerates in an e-mail response to GMA News Research. Guevara is President and Chief Executive Officer of Synergeia Foundation, a group which works with local government units, schools and communities to improve the quality of basic education. To keep kids in school, Guevara urges parents to get involved in their children’s education; local government units and teachers should help, as well. Barangay officials who note children who are not in school ought to inform parents of their children’s rights to education, Guevara suggests. Teachers, on the other hand, could implement modularized instruction in cases where children have to help during harvest and planting season. For its part, the Arroyo administration entices kids into showing up for class through conditional programs. The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, for instance, gives conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor households. For instance, beneficiaries stand to receive P3,000 for one school year or P300/month per child for educational expenses, for a maximum of three children per household. The cash grant is given on the condition that the children must enroll in school and attend classes at least 85% of the time. The Arroyo administration also initiated the Food for School Program in 2004. Under the program, poor pre-school and Grade 1 pupils in selected areas receive a daily ration of 1 kilogram of rice for 120 school days. While she recommends targeted subsidy for the very poor, Guevara thinks the conditional programs of the government are not enough. “These programs are not sustainable and are band-aid solution to the problem. They do not involve and build capacities of communities to care for the children," she says. To paraphrase a quote from former US First Lady and current US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- “It takes a village to keep kids in school," Guevara adds.
Classroom, computer quotas met Putting school-age kids in school was only half of the promise President Arroyo gave in her 2004 inaugural address as far as education is concerned. In the same speech, she also pledged that children will be “in an uncrowded classroom, in surroundings conducive to learning... at may computer sa bawat paaralan" when her term ends in 2010. The Arroyo administration’s Medium Term Philippine Development Plan for 2004-2010 fine-tuned this promise: 6,000 classrooms a year and one computer for every public high school. Official data show that the President seems to be holding up to this part of her promise. Figures cited in DepEd performance reports indicate that the classroom construction target has been surpassed every year from 2004 to 2008. The Technical Report for President Arroyo’s 2009 State of the Nation Address also reported that 7,054 classrooms have been built in the first half of the current year.
Number of classrooms built per year | YEAR | NUMBER OF CLASSROOMS |
| 2004 | 12,490 |
| 2005 | 9,407 |
| 2006 | 14,887 |
| 2007 | 15,215 |
| 2008 | 9,835 |
| 2009 (as of June) | 7,054 |
| Source: DepEd performance reports |
The same technical report states that 4,019 out of 6,650 public high schools already have computer laboratories; those which still do not have computers will be provided with units by the end of the year. Despite exceeding the target number of classrooms built, DepEd, still anticipates classroom shortage in some areas. “This perennial problem is due to continuing increase in student population, destruction brought about by natural and man-made calamities, etc.," the agency states in its 2009 performance report. The MTPDP recommended the adoption of double-shift classes in public schools to further address classroom shortage. Under this system, the MTPDP projected to bring the classroom gap from 17,873 classrooms in 2004 (computed at 50 pupils/students per class, double shift) to 1,150 in 2006-2007. Former education undersecretary Luz however, disapproves of the double-shift system. “If we are serious about education, we shouldn’t be double-shifting schools and depriving children of much-needed classroom time," he explains. By Luz’s own estimation, classroom shortage stood at 74,115 (computed at 45 pupils/students per class, single shift) in 2006. Factoring in the classrooms built since then would still leave a shortage of about 27,124 classrooms at present. “Despite the large number of new classrooms built, you can see that we still have a long way to go," says Luz.
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