FACT SHEET on Basic Education in the PHILIPPINES

• The Department of Education (DepEd) estimates out-of-school youth at 1.3 million for children aged 6 to 11 and 1.1 million for children aged 12-15 as of 2009.

• A study conducted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) found that:
o Between school years 1981-1982 and 1997-1998, gross enrollments in basic education grew at an annual average of 2.8%, a rate that exceeds the population growth. Over the same period, net enrollment rates in primary schools increased from 84.6% to 95.1%, while secondary enrollment rates increased from 54.7% to 64.0%.

o A look at more updated figures from the DepEd reveals that the same trend in increasing net enrollment rates—for school year 2010-2011, net enrollment rate in elementary schools increased to 89.89% from 85.01% in the previous school year, while net enrollment rate in secondary schools decreased to 60.93% from 62.38%.

• Data from the DepEd further reports that the completion rate for elementary schools stood at 72.18% in school year 2009-2010 and 72.11% in school year 2010-2011. Meanwhile, the completion rate for secondary schools stood at 73.74% in school year 2009-2010 and 74.67% in school year 2010-2011.

• From the FY 2011 budget, the DepEd has an allocation of Php12.3 billion for basic education facilities covering approximately 11,000 classrooms, 800,000 seats, and 11,000 sanitation facilities.
o Data from the DepEd also shows that the provinces with the greatest need of additional classrooms include Pangasinan, Batangas, Negros Occidental, Palawan, Negros Oriental, Zamboanga del Sur, Leyte, North Cotabato, Bohol, Isabela, Quezon, Iloilo, Camarines Sur, and Cebu.

The Philippines Progress Report on the Millennium Development Goals 2010 states that the key to achieving universal primary education by 2015 is to aggressively move the Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda (BESRA) forward, which aims to achieve:
o Functional literacy for all Filipino adults;
o Participation in school for all Filipino children aged 6 and to achieve all required competencies from Grades 1 to 3;
o All children aged 6 to 15 should complete elementary and secondary education with satisfactory achievement levels at every grade or year level; and
o Total community commitment to achieve basic education competencies for all.

The potential of BESRA to address challenges in basic education relies on School-Based Management (SBM), which enables stakeholders at the school and community levels to help chart the course and means of their progress toward achieving improved outcomes in education.

• The DepEd has been working to close resource gaps, and their initiatives include:
o Covering the resource gaps on textbooks by the end of the year, including in typhoon-affected areas. School heads ensure that textbooks are kept dry despite instances of flooding.
o The DepEd has allocated for the construction of 15,000 classrooms in 2012 and another 15,000 classrooms for 2013. Taking into account counterpart classroom construction projects with local government units (LGUs) and donations from private organizations and foreign aid agencies, the shortage of 66,000 classrooms may be addressed in two years. As such, the DepEd will only need to catch up with increasing population in the years after 2013.
o The DepEd’s project with other agencies including the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) will help close the gaps in school chairs within a timeframe spanning end-2011 to 2012, at the latest, as a result of recent typhoons that hit the Philippines.

JL Santiago Aquino

A millennial lifestyle blogger from Caloocan City who adores trying new things. ✨ Email: blog.ph7@gmail.com. Follow @JayL_Aquino on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok & Facebook.

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