Future of RP education bleak, UN goals unmet as deadline nears

The writers attended a seminar-workshop on Reporting on the MDGs last year sponsored by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and the United Nations Development Programme. Conspicuous are the five empty seats in Erlinda Numeron’s small class of 35. Numeron teaches second grade at Malixi Elementary School, and five of her students have left without finishing the term. Within any given school year, the increasing number of empty seats inside Malixi’s classrooms is a common sight; most of the students who drop out are the children of farmers. Malixi Elementary School is a barangay school nine kilometers from the town center of Tagbina in Surigao del Sur. Tagbina is a farming community, with most residents making a living out of coconut farming and kopra production. These children in Numeron’s class, and all the other children who fail to make it to school, are the concern of government officials tasked to meet the country’s commitment to the Millenium Declaration. In September 2000, the Philippines committed to improve the lives of the poor and signed the Millenium Declaration along with 191 countries. This entailed a commitment to achieve the eight Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). Among the MDGs, the lag in universal access to primary education is most pronounced. In fact, MDG monitoring notes that access to primary education worsened in school year 2005-2006, with the enrollment rate dropping more than 10 percent from the 2000 figures. Groups monitoring the MDG may have fair reasons to doubt that the Philippines could meet the target of 100 percent primary education to all Filipino children by 2015. Sixty-year old Numeron has spent almost half her life teaching in Malixi. “Ang pangunahing dahilan kung bakit kakaunti lang ang pumapasok sa eskwelahan ay ang layo ng tirahan ng mga estudyante sa paaralan. Karaniwan sa kanila ay naglalakad ng 1.5 kilometers araw-araw para lang pumasok sa eskwela," she says. Children leave their houses before daybreak to get to class on time, trudging on dirt roads for most of the kilometer-long walk ahead. Poverty compounds the problem. Midway through the school year, Numeron says, parents will ask the teacher to excuse their child. The child has to stop schooling to contribute to the family income. In the just released Philippine Poverty Statistics, Surigao del Sur is among the top 20 poorest provinces in the country with almost half of its families considered poor. These days, however, Numeron has something to be optimistic about. “Mag-uumpisa na kami magbigay ng bigas sa mga estudyante namin," she says. The Department of Education’s School Feeding Program gives out a bag of rice to each student to encourage them to attend class. In Malixi, the supply is limited: only pre-school and grade 1 pupils will be taking home those 1-kilo bags of rice everyday. Halfway to the hurdle The UN Millennium Declaration laid out the MDGs as a worldwide agenda to reduce poverty and all its forms by 2015. The MDGs deal with the following major issues in the country:

• eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• achieve universal primary education
• promote gender equality and empower women
• reduce child mortality
• improve maternal health
• combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• ensure environmental sustainability
• develop a global partnership for development

Seven years to the deadline, or halfway through the hurdle, the National Economic Development Authority says the country has made advances in terms of poverty reduction, nutrition, reducing child mortality, combating HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases and access to safe drinking water. However, efforts seem to have fallen short on the other targets. The Philippine Midterm Progress Report published by NEDA report says that in all the three indicators to achieve the universal primary education – elementary participation rate, cohort survival rate and completion rate – the probability of attaining the 2015 target was consistently assessed as “low." Says NEDA, “The country needs to work harder on targets concerning universal access to education, maternal mortality and access to reproductive health services." Looking at school year 2005-2006, the NEDA report says only eight in 10 elementary-age children are in school (participation rate). Only seven in 10 will reach Grade VI (survival rate). And only seven will get to finish elementary education (completion rate). The numbers in Tagbina, Surigao del Sur may seem to represent this picture. DepEd records show Tagbina’s cohort survival rate of 65.01 percent in the school year 2005-2006. This means roughly seven in 10 students in Tagbina get to the sixth grade. In Malixi Elementary School, teacher Numeron says about 20 students from grade 1 to grade 6 drop out each year. This school year, five of Numeron’s second grade students have already left school. The failing numbers, whether in small towns like Tagbina or in the national level, have not been lost to record-keepers. Candido Astrologo Jr. of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) says the Philippines lags by 15 years in terms of primary education. “Instead of improving in meeting the target for education, we are lagging behind kasi ang rate of progress natin ay nasa 1990 pa. Parang hindi tayo umuusod nyan," he says.

MDGs Rate of Progress at National Level
MDG Goal and Targets	Current level (%)	Target by 2015 (%)	Current Rate of Progress (%)	Required Rate of Progress (%)	Probability of Attaining the Targets
Net enrolment ratio	84.44	100%	-0.05	1.37	Low
Cohort Survival Rate	69.9	84.67	0.09	1.48	Low
Completion Rate	67.99	81.04	0.11	1.3	Low

Source: Philippine Midterm Progress Report on the MDGs 2007, NEDA and UNDP

Armed conflict, poverty, nutrition In the past three years, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has the least number of students able to make it to the sixth grade, and also the least number of students who get to complete their elementary education. Metro Manila, the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, and CALABARZON posted the best numbers in terms of participation and cohort survival rates. Prof. Leonor Briones of Social Watch Philippines says the armed conflict in Mindanao has directly affected access to education. “Kung peaceful, makakapag-aral ang mga bata," says Briones. “Kung hindi peaceful ang lugar, hindi makakapag-aral ang mga bata. Mayroong correlation, not only with education but also with health and all the other MDG goals. " In 2006, the UNICEF commissioned a study to look into the possible effects of armed conflict to children, women and communities in the countryside. Findings show that children in conflict areas in Mindanao stopped going to school when they left their homes to escape the fights between the military and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The study cited other reasons such as the distance of the schools from homes, lack of money, and the need for children to work to support their families. Former DepEd undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz says getting children enrolled in elementary school is not really the problem; the high dropout rate is. MDG monitoring notes that dropout rates at the elementary level has been increasing from 2001 to 2005. Luz explains that children tend to drop out of school within grades one to four. “If you want to manage them properly, we need to keep them in school up to grade 4. So what you need to do for grades 1, 2 and 3 is ‘in-school feeding’," he says. Poverty and poor nutrition are what’s taking children away from school, Luz says. He explains that one in every three school-age children is malnourished. In nine regions with high prevalence of underweight children, eight posted low probability of meeting the MDG target for education. These regions include Bicol, Eastern Visayas, Mimaropa, CARAGA, Western Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, SOCCSKSARGEN and Northern Mindanao.

Region	Prevalance of underweight school-age children 2003	Probability of achieving the MDG goal in education
Bicol	36.1	Low
E. Visayas	35	Low
Mimaropa	32.2	Low
CARAGA	31.7	Low
W. Visayas	30.8	Low
Zamboanga Peninsula	29.9	Low
SOCCSKSARGEN	29.7	Low
Ilocos Region	28.8	High
N. Mindanao	26.7	Low
C. Visayas	25
ARMM	23.7
Calabarzon	22.5	Low
Davao	22.3	Low
CAR	21.7	Low
Cagayan Valley	19.5
Central Luzon	17.7	Low
NCR	15.7

SOURCE: National Nutrition Survey, 2003: FNRI and NSCB Poverty incidence data also shows most of the poorer regions register low probability of achieving the MDG in education. These regions are Caraga, Zamboanga Peninsula, Bicol, MIMAROPA, Northern Mindanao, Eastern Visayas, Soccsksargen, Western Visayas, Davao and CAR -- all with poverty incidence higher than the national average.

REGION	Poverty Incidence	Probability of achieving Goal 2
Caraga	47.3	Low
Muslim Mindanao	45.7
Zamboanga Peninsula	44.1	Low
Bicol Region	40.5	Low
MIMAROPA	39.7	Low
Northern Mindanao	37.9	Low
Eastern Visayas	35.5	Low
SOCCSKSARGEN	32.0	Low
Western Visayas	31.3	Low
Davao Region	28.1	Low
Cordillera Administrative	24.8	Low
Ilocos Region	24.4	High
Central Visayas	23.7
Cagayan Valley	19.3
CALABARZON	14.9	Low
Central Luzon	13.7	Low
National Capital Region	5.0

SOURCE: Poverty incidence, 2003: NSCB and Philippines Midterm Progress Report on the MDGs, 2007 The relationship between poverty and education is clearly noted by the MDG monitoring in the NEDA report: “It is interesting to note that participation rates in primary education by region is inversely correlated with the incidence rates for food and overall poverty." Budgeting for education Financing the MDGs is crucial, says Prof. Briones. “Do you know Alice in wonderland? Alice in Wonderland, she just keeps on running just to stay in the same place. Now, that’s the problem of education and health. Even as they keep on running, they just stay in the same place because the demand is getting bigger," she says. Government estimates in the funding of the MDGs are in the billions of pesos – P2.4 B from 2007-2015, says the CPBD. NEDA says the biggest funding gap in is on basic education and poverty reduction. In the Philippines, there is no question that education is a priority. The Constitution clearly states that education must get the biggest share of the budget. In reality, however, debt service takes the biggest chunk. From 2000 to 2008, the budget for education has been increasing in actual amounts, but its share in the national budget pie has in fact been getting smaller. In 2000, the budget for education was only 17.12 percent of the national budget; by 2008 this has decreased to 14.82 percent. The government think tank Congressional Planning and Budget Department notes, “The 2008 education budget was only 2.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The international standard is 6 percent of GDP." Also, the budgeting for education does not seem to match the MDG in primary education. While elementary level gets the lion’s share of the education funds, the data also shows that its share in the total education budget has been decreasing. “Clearly, underinvestment in basic education coupled with unabated increase in student population and widespread poverty has resulted in dismal educational performance," the CPBD says in its 2008 Analysis of the President’s Budget. Seven years to the deadline, the Philippines is playing catch up to the MDG deadline. The MDG monitoring report is a mixture of good news and bad news. But NEDA chief Augusto Santos says the good news outweigh the bad. Unfortunately, the update on the education goal has not been a cause for celebration. However, both government and critics agree that what is important is the commitment. “More than reporting how the Philippines has fared in meeting the MDGs, this Report reaffirms the country’s commitment and it’s resolve to pursue affirmative action especially in mobilizing much-needed resources to meet the MDGs," Santos says. Prof. Briones agrees. “Commitment natin yan," she says. “Kailangan naman kumilos ang Pilipinas…every year mino-monitor, kinu-compare ang Pilipinas sa ibang bansa. Ayaw naman ng gobyerno nating magpahuli." --GMANews.TV/GMA News Research