The Family-Individual-Community-School (FICS) Tool

Refined by Michell L. Acoyong and Juna T. Flores, 2014

Background

Dropping out of school is a recurring problem among public schools in the Philippines.
The decision of a student to leave the school is most often caused by a number of interacting
factors which are not detected at the earlier part of the school year. Without understanding and
appreciating the complex nature of causal relationships among the many factors that surround
the dropout phenomenon, manifestations of the likelihood of a student to drop out is treated as
normal and the interventions provided, if not inappropriate, come in too late.

The Department of Education introduced the Dropout Reduction Program (DORP)

Handbook in order to help schools address this issue. One of the underlying assumptions of the
program is that dropout cases can be arrested if the causes are properly identified and
described and appropriate interventions are initiated to remove the causes. However, it is the
current practice of schools to report dropout cases and their respective causes at the end of the
school year which means that before the school has provided a specific intervention, the student
has already dropped out. It is observed that most dropout reduction interventions are rather
reactive than preventive that most cases could have actually been prevented had there been a
systematic identification of students at risk of dropping out at an early stage.

In order to identify students at risk of dropping out the Department of Education

developed a tool which captures the family’s, individual’s, community’s, and school’s
involvement in creating the problem. The tool which is known among the schools as FICS is
expected to generate data on the prevalent risk indicators that will likely cause the eventual
dropping of students having these indicators which will be the basis of the school in crafting
intervention to prevent these students from dropping out. In its present format, however, the
FICS tool is merely a listing of risk indicators without a structure that requires specific data in
order for the teacher to assess, validate, and ascertain that a particular student is indeed
possessing the indicators, therefore, at risk of dropping out.

Thus, as part of the creation of a Multimodal Dropout Reduction Program, strengthening

the mechanism for the profiling, tracking, and reporting of students’ progress in terms of
attendance, academic performance, and behavior is identified among the four major
interdependent components of the program. So that a more standardized administration of the
tool and in order that teachers will be properly guided in assessing the level of risk of dropping
out of each student, the FICS tool was refined to include items that call for data considered as
the minimum essentials for determining which dropout risk indicators apply to a particular
student.
Purpose and Organization of the Refined Version of the FICS Tool

The Refined FICS tool is intended to standardize the assessment of the types and levels
of dropout risk indicators that apply to a particular student by specifying the data that teachers
need to obtain from him/her. The clustering of factors as to whether they relate to the family,
individual, community, or school is based on the original FICS tool but the dropout risk
indicators were modified in order to incorporate research findings on the causes why students
drop out of school, commonly reported causes of drop out gathered from the Enhanced Basic
Education Information System, and interviews and focus group discussions with the principal,
guidance counsellor, teachers, barangay captains, parents of students who have actually
dropped out, and the dropouts themselves.

The Refined FICS Tool calls for data for the following clusters:

1. Family income;
2. Family structure and relationship;
3. Family’s valuing of education;
4. Health and nutritional status;
5. Academic performance;
6. Relationship with peers;
7. Community context; and
8. School environment

Based on the data gathered for the above clusters, the dropout risk indicators are
determined and coded as follows:

F1: Low family income

F2: Dysfunctional family
F3: Indifference of family to education
I1: Suffering from chronic illness
I2: Poor academic performance
I3: Negatively influenced by peers
C1: Has to walk long distances or ride in order to attend school
C2: Feels threatened when travelling from home to school
C3: Having friends among the out-of-school youth in the community
S1: Does not find staying in school enjoyable
S2: Does not find the physical facilities of the school adequate and conducive for
learning
S3: Does not find the teachers inspiring
S4: Does not find school rules, policies, and procedures as pro-poor or child-friendly
Classroom-Based Administration of the Refined Version of the FICS Tool

A school-based orientation on the background, purpose, and administration of the tool

shall be initiated by the principal through the school guidance office. The orientation may be
conducted per department or year level where the assistance of the department heads and the
class advisers would be of much help in ensuring that the teachers understand and appreciate
the importance tool.

Each section adviser shall administer the tool in his/her ideally during the first week of
school year. He/she shall use the tool as a guide in obtaining data from individual students on a
one-on-one and confidential manner. The adviser must gain the trust of the students to ensure
honest disclosure of certain sensitive information.

After the obtaining the required data from all students in his/her class, the adviser will
analyse the data and determine the dropout risk indicators that apply to each student. Then the
adviser shall accomplish a table similar to the one below by ticking the column corresponding to
the code of a dropout risk indicator applicable to each student:

Students’ Name F1 F2 F3 I1 I2 I3 C1 C2 C3 S1 S2 S3 S4 Remarks

Total
*The Remarks will be as follows: 1 Indicator – At Risk; 2 Indicators – At High Risk; 3 or more – At Very High Risk

The accomplished FICS tables per section will be submitted for consolidation per year
level. The school guidance office will come up with the school level consolidation which will
serve as the basis for designing interventions to prevent the students identified as having risk of
dropping out (e.g. follow-up interviews with these students or conference with parents of
students at very high risk of dropping out).

Expected Outputs

The following are the expected outputs after administering the FICS tool:
1. Classroom level listing of students classified as At Risk, At High Risk, and At Very High
Risk and ranking of the dropout risk indicators common among students in the class;
2. Grade level listing of students classified as At Risk, At High Risk, and At Very High Risk
and ranking of the dropout risk indicators common among students in the grade level;
3. School level listing of students classified as At Risk, At High Risk, and At Very High Risk
and ranking of the dropout risk indicators common among students in the school; and
4. Plans and designs for preventing students particularly those identified as SARDOs at the
classroom, grade/department, and school levels.
Refined Version of the FICS Tool

Name of Student: ______________________________ Date of Birth: ________________

Year and Section: ______________ Adviser: _____________________________________
Date Administered: _____________

I. Family Income

How many are you in your family? ________

Father’s Occupation: _________________ Monthly Income: _________________
Mother’s Occupation: _________________ Monthly Income: _________________
How much does your family spend for the following monthly:
Food: ___________________________ Water: _____________________________
Clothing: ________________________ Electricity: __________________________
Transportation: ___________________ Fuel:_______________________________
School Allowance: _________________ School Projects:______________________
Others: _________________________
Do you work? _______ Why?______________ How much do you earn? ___________
What work? ______________________ Since when? ______________________
Were you forced?_________________ Effect on your schooling? ____________
Do you have a brother or sister who is out of school? ________ Why?__________________
Do you have a brother or sister who stopped schooling because he/she has to work? ____

II. Family Structure and Relationship

Are both your parents still alive? ___________

Are your parents still living together? _______ If not, why? _____________________
With whom are you living? ________________
How do members of your family treat each other? _________________________________

III. Family’s Valuing of Education

Father’s highest educational attainment: _________________________________________

Mother’s highest educational attainment: ________________________________________
Educational Attainment of siblings: _____________________________________________
Do you have a brother or a sister who has dropped out of school? ____________________
Why: ___________________________________________________________________
Do your parents check on or help with your school assignments? __________________
Do your parents attend PTA meetings and other school-related activities? ____________
Do your parents personally and regularly get your report card? __________________
Do your parents regularly confer with your teachers regarding your __________________
progress in school?
Do your parents motivate you to do well in school? __________________

IV. Health and Nutritional Status

Are you suffering from an illness? _______ What illness?_________________________

Since when have you been suffering from your illness? _____________________________
Have you received any intervention (e.g. hospitalization, medication)? _________________
Have you stopped schooling because of your illness? ______________________________
 V. Academic Performance

What was your General Average last School Year? ________

Do you have failing grades? _____ Is yes, what subjects?__________________________
How did you feel about failing? ________________________________________________
Why did you fail? ___________________________________________________________
What help did you receive from your teachers? ____________________________________

VI. Relationship with Peers

Do you have a “barkada”? ______

If yes, what things do you usually do with them? ________________________________
Is your “barkada” a positive influence on your schooling? _________________________
Have you done something you don’t want to gain the approval of your “barkada”? ________
If yes, what was the effect on you? ___________________________________________
Have you been or felt bullied by your classmates/schoolmates?_______________________
What are your feelings being bullied? _________________________________________

VII. Community Context

How far is your home from school? _______

Is the road from your home to school passable by any means of transportation? ________
How much is the fare for the available means of transportation? ________
Is transportation any time? _________ If not, when? ________________________
Do you feel safe travelling from home to school? ______ If not, why? _________________
What is the effect of your feeling not safe while travelling on your schooling? ____________
Are there out-of-school youth in your barangay? _______
Do you have friends among them? ________
Do they try to convince you to stop schooling? ________
What is your reaction?_____________________________________________________

VIII. School Environment

Do you enjoy being in school _____
Are you proud of your school? ____
Is this your school of choice? _____
What makes you enjoy or not enjoy being in school?
__________________________________________
What makes you proud or ashamed of your school?
__________________________________________
If not, why did you enrol here?
__________________________________________

Do you find the following adequate, conducive and supportive of your learning:
classrooms?_______ Why/Why not?_________________________________________
library? __________ Why/Why not?_________________________________________
laboratories? _____ Why/Why not?_________________________________________
clinic? ___________ Why/Why not?_________________________________________
canteen? _________ Why/Why not?_________________________________________
activity center? ____ Why/Why not?_________________________________________
guidance office? ___ Why/Why not?_________________________________________
Do you find all your teachers inspiring? _____ If not, why? _________________________
Do you understand the school rules, policies, and procedures concerning your
accountabilities as a student? _________
Are there rules, policies, and procedures that you wish changed or scrapped? ______
What are these rules, procedures, and procedures?_______________________________