Future of RP education bleak, UN goals unmet as deadline nears
By BRENDA BARRIENTOS and ALLAN VALLARTA, GMA News Research
03/25/2008 | 06:17 PM
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:
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.
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
