Philippine Basic Education

A blog that tackles issues on basic education (in the Philippines and the United States) including
early childhood education, the teaching profession, math and science education, medium of
instruction, poverty, and the role of research and higher education.

Out-Of-School Children and Youth in the Philippines

November 01, 2016

Data and statistics help us see what is really happening but these still need to be collected properly and
more importantly, analyzed thoughtfully. The number of children who leave school is a significant metric
for any educational system. School leavers constitute an anathema to the mantra of education for all. The
Philippines currently faces significantly low and seemingly stubborn cohort survival rates for both
elementary and secondary education.

The Cohort Survival Rate is the proportion of enrollees at the beginning grade or year who reach the final
grade or year at the end of the required number of years of study.
The numbers above are helpful for these show how many students actually finish both elementary and
high school at the designated number of years. Thus, at the end of high school, more than 21 percent of
the students do not finish on time. What is quite remarkable is that this number is not so different from
the percentage of youth (aged 15-24 years old) who are not attending school, have not finished any
college or post secondary course, and are not working: 17.5 %

Having these two percentages quite close to each other only suggests that most of the youth who are
now either unemployed or not in school are also the same individuals who have not finished high school
on time. Of course, it is important to find the reason why there are so many of the youth not enrolled in a
school. Below are the answers provided by Philippine statisticians:
The numbers above mean something, but seeing "Family income not sufficient to send child to school"
and "High Cost of Education" as two separate categories is quite puzzling. The cost of anything is really
perceived high if one cannot afford it, but the above suggests that 19.2% of out-of-school youth say their
family income is not sufficient to send child to school while only 9.0% says high cost of education. Of
course, the other intriguing piece of the data is that even with public education in high school, a significant
number still cites costs as the main reason for leaving school.

In any case, the main reasons youth in the Philippines leave school are dramatically different from those
given by high school dropouts in the United States:
The contrast is very striking. The cohort survival rate in the United States is not far from that of the
Philippines. It is 81% (in the US), very close to 78.2 % (in the Philippines), yet the reasons for dropping out
of school are miles apart. Perhaps, the difference lies in how the survey was done, what questions were
provided, and what possible reasons were suggested.

Data and Statistics School Drop-outs

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"Bear in mind that the wonderful

things you learn in your schools
are the work of many generations,
produced by enthusiastic effort
and infinite labor in every country
of the world. All this is put into
your hands as your inheritance in
order that you may receive it,
honor it, add to it, and one day
faithfully hand it to your children.
Thus do we mortals achieve
immortality in the permanent
things which we create in
common." - Albert Einstein

Angel C. de Dios, Ph.D., is currently an

associate professor of chemistry at
Georgetown University. At Georgetown,
he has been teaching General
Chemistry since 1995 in addition to
graduate courses in molecular
spectroscopy and quantum chemistry.
His research interests include nuclear
magnetic resonance spectroscopy,
protein structure determination, anti-
malarial drugs, and math and science
education. He was a recipient of a
CAREER Award from the National
Science Foundation and the
Georgetown College Dean’s Award for
Excellence in Teaching. A member of
PAASE (Philippine American Academy
of Science and Engineering), he helped
the residents of Paete, Laguna
incorporate computers and the Internet
into their public schools.

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