About the Speaker

◦ Dr. Jose Ramon “TOOTS” Albert is a professional statistician and

senior researcher of the Philippine Institute for Development
Studies (PIDS) . He finished BS Applied Math summa cum laude
from DLSU. He finished MS in Statistics and PhD in Statistics
from SUNY Stony Brook, NY.
◦ From Sep 2012 to Feb 2014, he was seconded to the now
defunct National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), to head
it as its Secretary General. He has worked in government since
1999, initially at the former Statistical Research and Training
Center, which like PIDS and NSCB, is an attached agency of the
National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).
◦ He is a past president of the PH Statistical Association, Inc.
◦ He served as consultant to various government agencies, private
firms in the PH and international organizations. He worked for
26 countries spanning South-East Asia, South Asia, East Asia, the
Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa on poverty measurement
and analysis, econometric methods, and survey data analysis.
◦ He has taught @ various HEIs in the PH, including DLSU, AIM,
Holy Angel University, Mindanao Polytechnic State College, UST,
and San Beda College.
1
Quality Education for All, Social
Inclusion and the SDGs in PH:
A forgotten agenda?
Jose Ramon G. Albert, Ph.D.
Senior Research Fellow
email: jalbert@mail.pids.gov.ph
N O V EMBE R 2 3 , 2 0 2 2

Philippine Institute for Development Studies

Surian sa mga Pag-aaral Pangkaunlaran ng Pilipinas
Outline
 Introduction
o
Where are we on the SDGs?
 Trends in Poverty and Inequality in ASEAN
o
What do latest Official Poverty Data in PH say?
o
Can Granular Data (on Poverty) be enhanced ?
o
What can be Projected about Extreme Poverty Rates?
o
How have ASEAN member states reduced poverty?
o
Has inequality reduced in ASEAN member states?
 The Learning Crisis
o
Digital Skills
o
Why We Are In Crisis
o
Ways Forward
3
1. Introduction
 PH together with 192 other UN member states
committed to attaining the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) by 2030
 The SDGs put forth a wider coverage than the
Millennium Development Goals
o
17 goals, 169 targets and 231 (unique) indicators
o
Five key themes: People, Prosperity, Planet, Peace, and
Partnership
o
Over-aching principle of “Leaving No One Behind”
 Prior to COVID-19, the world was off track in meeting
the SDGs; COVID-19 put SDGs further off track.
4
1.1. Where are We on SDGs?
 According to SDSN and the Bertelsmann Stiftung,
PH has had mixed progress in attaining the SDGs

https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/profiles/philippines
5
1.1. Where are We on SDGs?
 Moderate commitment and efforts for the SDGs

https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/profiles/philippines/policy-efforts
6
 2. Trends in Poverty and Inequality in ASEAN
Proportion of Population in ASEAN Member States
Living on Less than (a) US$2.15 (in PPP 2017 prices) Per
 Across ASEAN, we have had much fewer
Day and (b) US$3.65 (in PPP 2017 prices): 2000-2021 people living in extreme* poverty (and in
moderate** poverty) prior to the onset of
COVID-19
o 18.3 million in extreme poverty in 2019 , reduced from 170.6 million in 2000

 In 2019, poverty in ASEAN at less than 2.9

percent (reducing by 12.1 percent per year)
o Among 7 member states, progress in eradicating extreme poverty rate
between 2000 and 2019 is below 10 percent per year in PHL (6.6) and
LAO (8.2), and higher than 20 percent per year in MYS (23.3) and MMR
o Malaysia (2013) and Thailand (2015) have reached the zero extreme poverty
target ahead of the 2030 target for the SDGs

Source: Poverty and Inequality Platform, World Bank (https://pip.worldbank.org/home)

7
2.1. What do latest official data poverty in PH say?
Poverty worsened but not
everywhere
◦ Poverty rose from 16.7% in 2018 to
18.1% in 2021.
◦ 2.3 Million more Filipinos in poverty in
2021, of which 1 million fell in
subsistence poverty.
◦ Poverty incidence reduced in 6 regions
led by BARMM (24.6 ppts) increased in 11
regions, especially in C. Vis. (9.9 ppts),
which now leads regions in share of total
poor.

8
2.2. How does government produce data on poverty?
 According to RA 8425 of 1997, the poor is defined as:
 individuals and families whose income fall below poverty threshold as defined by
the NEDA; and/or
 cannot afford in a sustained manner to provide their minimum basic needs of
food, health, education, housing and other essential amenities
 Official poverty measurement systems involve three steps (UNSD 2005;
Albert 2008; Haughton 2009):
1. Defining a welfare indicator: PSA uses (per capita) income from FIES
2. Setting a poverty line: cost-of-basic needs → official poverty thresholds
3. Summarizing poverty data: PSA releases poverty and subsistence incidence
(among families, population, among “basic sectors”), poverty gap
 PSA released MPI as a multidimensional measure of poverty
ORSP March 2022 Webinar “OR: Addressing Current National Issues” 9
 2.2. How does government produce data on poverty?
How does PSA generate official poverty statistics? Classify people using income data from FIES

(Rest of the Population) Poverty Threshold (in pesos)

Poverty
Incidence
Income (Poor)
income Food Threshold (in pesos)

Subsistence
Incidence income
(Extremely Poor
or Subsistence Poor/Food Poor )

ORSP March 2022 Webinar “OR: Addressing Current National Issues” 10

2.2. How does government produce data on poverty?
• Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES): conducted every three years
• Target sample households: around 180 thousand starting 2018 (four times
what it used to be in 2003 to 2015). Questionnaire is lengthy (80 pages), with
interview time of about 5 hours. Responding families visited twice to obtain
information on income (and expenditures) in the past semester
Visit Reference Period When
First First Semester (January-June) July
Second Second Half of Year (July-December) January of succeeding year
PSA also conducts another survey during non-FIES years, called the Annual
Poverty Indicator Survey (APIS), which is a source of income data for first
semester, but APIS questionnaire is different. It is used to now generate a
multidimensional poverty estimates.
• Since poverty estimates come from a survey, there are “sampling errors”.
ORSP March 2022 Webinar “OR: Addressing Current National Issues” 11
 2.3. Can Granular Data (on Poverty) be improved?
Utilizing Big Data for Development
Purposes
Improving Small Area Estimates of Poverty in PH
Using innovative data sources
Conventional small area estimates require further validation

 Reliable and timely data

is crucial for targeting
 Quality data is needed in
Official SAE evaluating of “shocks”
EBLUP Estimates and of policies to poor
 Big data complements
conventional data to
ensure better devt
outcomes

12
2.3. Can Granular Data (on Poverty) be improved?
PSA and NSO TH, harness Big data
with support from ADB
◦ Integration of census, FIES and earth observation
data to get better estimates of poverty level at
small areas

13
2.4. What can be projected about Extreme Poverty
Rates?
Trends in and Projections of Extreme Poverty Rates (in %)
 World Data Lab in its World across Select ASEAN member states: 20016-2030.
Poverty Clock (2022) suggests
that extreme poverty rates in
ASEAN member states have
risen in 2020, but projects a
recovery with countries
already having extreme
poverty below 3 percent,
and/or on track to reach the
zero poverty SDG1 target by
2030 (Source: World Poverty Clock, World Data Lab)

14
2.5. How have ASEAN member states reduced
poverty?
 Reduction in poverty in a country is due to per capita growth
in an economy, or changes in income distribution, or
interaction (Datt and Ravallion 1990)
o
Several ASEAN countries (IDN, PHL, and KHM) implemented large-
scale CCT programs targeted for poor families
o
Lessons learned in social assistance used in fiscal stimulus amid
COVID-19

15
 2.6. Has inequality reduced?
Gini in ASEAN Member States : 2000-2021
 Poverty reduction and economic growth have
not always been accompanied by reduced
income inequalities
o Since 2000, latest data for ASEAN member states show that five member
states, viz., Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam have
reduced their respective Gini coefficient compared to earliest years data

 The persistently high levels of inequality in the

Philippines and the rising inequality in
Indonesia and Lao PDR has reduced the extent
to which economic growth benefited the poor
in these countries.
o This is why rates of extreme poverty reduction in Indonesia, Lao PDR and the
Philippines have been slower than those in Malaysia, Myanmar, Viet Nam and
Thailand

Source: Poverty and Inequality Platform, World Bank (https://pip.worldbank.org/home)

16
 Reading Conversing with Others
Cloud Nine
3. The Learning Crisis
Attentive

 Nothing New
◦ Learning assessments suggest learners don’t
have enough skills
- NAT MPS below 50%
- PISA, PH ranked last in reading
second to last in science & math
- TIMSS, PH ranked last
◦ Curricular changes in basic education,
tech-voc and higher ed, but are these
“future-ready”?
◦ Soft skills are important, but who is
responsible for building these skills?
Laurentius De Voltolina depiction of 14th century lecture
The Yorck Project
17
 3.1. DigitalSkills
 Poor Digital Skills of Filipinos, including youth
• In ASEAN, PH fares slightly better than TH in all digital skills measured, except on “Using basic
arithmetic formula in a spreadsheet”
Proportion (%) of youths and adults in select ASEAN member states with ICT skills (SDG 4.4.1), by type of skill, recent year
Brunei (2018) Cambodia (2017) Indonesia (2018) Malaysia (2018) Singapore (2018) Thailand (2018) Philippines (2019)
5 9 .5

5 9 .5

5 9 .4
5 7 .4

5 6 .5

5 4 .9
5 3 .9

5 2 .4

5 0 .6
4 3 .8

4 3 .4
4 2 .6
4 2 .4

47
4 0 .7

3 9 .7
3 7 .6

3 7 .5

3 4 .7
3 0 .2
2 5 .8
2 4 .5
2 6 .8

2 6 .2
2 5 .9

2 5 .5
2 5 .2

2 2 .2
2 4 .2

2 0 .6
1 9 .8
1 5 .1

1 4 .7

1 0 .5

1 1 .3
9 .1
7 .2

8 .5

4 .6
9

2 .5

0 .6
Source: Global SDG Indicators Database (https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicators/database/), except for Philippines-2019 NICTHS (DICT and PSRTI).

Notes: Three ICT skills listed in SDG 4.4.1 are not available for the Philippines; data covers youth and adults (PH: 15 years old and above).

18
 3.2. WhyWeAreInCrisis
Primary Net enrolment ratio vs Education spending (to GDP)
100.0% 4.5%

 Poor spending in education 95.0%

4.0%
3.5%
3.0%
• PH attained near universal primary 90.0%

85.0%
2.5%
2.0%

education (prior to COVID), despite 80.0%

1.5%
1.0%

underspending in education. 75.0%

90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
0.5%
0.0%

o Since 1990, spending in education 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20

Net Enrolment Rate Education Budget as % of GDP DepEd Budget as % of GDP

relative to GDP has been at most 3.8% Cumulative Spending per student and PISA Reading scores
(in 1998), and has dipped to 2.8% of 6.40

GDP in 2019. 6.30

6.20

Mean Reading Score

o PISA data shows that poor spending on 6.10
6.00

education per student has dire 5.90

consequences to learning, proxied by

5.80
5.70

average reading scores 5.60

5.50
9.00 10.00 11.00 12.00 13.00 14.00 15.00 16.00
Cumulative Expenditure per Student
Sources: OECD, PISA 2018 database
Note: ASEAN member states identified
19
 3.2. WhyWeAreInCrisis
Lack focus on quality
• Policies in basic education focused on access to the neglect of quality
• Training Interventions focus on quantity (more training programs, more trainees)
than quality assurance
• Lack data for measuring quality of skills:
(i) digital skills only got measured in the DICT 2019 survey
(ii) soft skills are not measured; and even when data is available, we don’t
actually use them (e.g., is NAT used as input for teacher training?)

20
 3.2. WhyWeAreInCrisis
Neglect equity issues
• Data Disaggregation on ICT infra, ICT skills, out-of-school children (OOSC), NEET,
etc., show inequalities in opportunities across sub-populations (female NEET
over male NEET; rural NEET over urban NEET; male OOSC over female OOSC;
poorest ICT infra and digital skills in BARMM)
• While we have many policy pronouncements on gender mainstreaming, regional
development, social inclusion, etc. but actual programs are few and not
impactful
• Implementation of programs, activities, and projects fall short of funding and
design (to address lack of access to social services of vulnerable segments)

21
 3.2. WhyWeAreInCrisis
We Don’t Harness DigiTech
◦ Internet used largely for socmed,
few use e-commerce as of 2019
Access to government website/services
o
More recent data shows Filipinos
beginning to use net to search for
information (84%) over soc-med (82%)
13.0

Social activities/communication 94.2

Access to information 44.0

Leisure/lifestyle 36.6

Professional life 5.8

Learning 14.7

Creativity/user-generated content (UGC) 1.7

Online transactions 6.7

Online transportation/navigation 4.7

Others 0.6

22
 3.3. WaysForward
Build our Skills as Pathway Average daily wage of workers, by educational attainment (2019)

for Reducing Inequality 1800

1598

In pesos
1600 1460
(since Education Matters 1400

for Welfare)
1200
1000
782
◦ Average income increases 800
600
423
512 491
378
about twice as much from post 400 256 286 309 328
200
277 326

secondary graduate to college 0

l l
ed ate ate ate ate ate ate ate ate ate ate eve eve
graduate, and college graduate et u u u u u u
pl rad rad rad rad rad rad rad rad rad rad er L al L
om erg y g erg S g erg S g erg y g erg e g ast tor
u u u u

to master level education a d

gr r y
c
e nd tar nd
u en S u
JH nd
Su
S H nd
y
d ar nd lleg
U o n e u Co
M Doc

No nta Ele
m J H S H
d a r
S ec lleg
e on os t Co
m c P
Ele ts S
e
Po

23
 3.3. WaysForward
 Ensuring Quality of Learning and Training for All
oBack to basics (3Rs: reading, writing, ’rithmetic; science and 4Cs) in basic ed; plus work-
integrated learning in tech-voc and “systems thinking” in higher ed
oAside from 3Rs, work on building digital skills and soft-skills of young
oMake education and training respond to needs of industry
oProvide incentives for enterprise-based training, and for industry to value “training
certificates”
oUpscale learning models that work
oInvest in use of technology (especially AI) for a more learner-centered education (See, e.g.,
High-Touch High Tech learning advocated by a former education minister of Korea)
oReduce learning gaps between poor and non-poor, urban and rural, male and female
oInvest in both formal and informal learning through digital platforms (e.g., Youtube, TikTok)
oBuild systems for life-long learning
oHarness public private partnerships for learning
24
3.3. WaysForward
Mainstreaming Social Justice in Policy

equal rights, equitable opportunities

and fair treatments and protections for all

Social Justice should be a policy priority: PH Constitution;

PH Dev’t Plan and AMBISYON 2040; International declarations
(UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the
Copenhagen Declaration, and SDGs)
Pursuit of social justice should be at the core of our policies and actions as we
strive for sustainable and inclusive development, and human dignity especially
amid

25
 Philippine Institute for Development

WAKAS
Studies
Surian sa mga Pag-aaral Pangkaunlaran ng Pilipinas

inquiries@pids.gov.ph ; jalbert@mail.pids.gov.ph

/PIDS.PH
Service through @PIDS_PH
policy research
http://www.pids.gov.ph

26