The State of Philippine Education: a View from a Filipino Youth
State of the Philippine Education
The latest report by the National Statistical Coordination Board, recognizing that one in six school-age-children is deprived of education, tells us of what is in store in our country’s future.
The enrollment rate in our primary school five years ago, was 90 percent. Last year, it dropped to
83 percent, and the number is rising. The situation is worse for secondary education, where enrollment rate has been steady at only 59 percent over the same period.
Unfortunately, this has been going on in decades. Past government administrations are equally guilty ofnegligence to check the increasing numbers of illiterate Filipinos. Illiteracy to me, means the difficulty of a person to read and write, and even if he or she can read or write, the comprehension is low and have difficulty following simple written instructions. Education has been in the backburner and no serious effort was made to make it a major strategy for our progress. Education has a dramatic effect on economic development and growth. In fact, other countriesare starting to realize how drop-out rates affect to their economies. In the Philippines, nobodyknows the extent of its effect.
It appears that we lost sight of the implications of this issue, because there is no statistical data toshow how much was lost in terms of peso value due to school drop-outs and illiteracy. What I amsaying is that, it is not only lost opportunity to get better income, but the government also lost taxrevenues from a productive and competitive population.
School non-completion affects so many things. It increases criminal activity, and adds to cost of prison and welfare services. By simply following a simple linear cause and effect analysis, they have lower lifetime earnings, which reduces buying power, lowers tax revenues for governments and reduces economic growth. When you extend your analysis, it results to decreased health status, more criminal activity, higher rates of teen
The latest report by the National Statistical Coordination Board, recognizing that one in six school-age-children is deprived of education, tells us of what is in store in our country’s future.
The enrollment rate in our primary school five years ago, was 90 percent. Last year, it dropped to
83 percent, and the number is rising. The situation is worse for secondary education, where enrollment rate has been steady at only 59 percent over the same period.
Unfortunately, this has been going on in decades. Past government administrations are equally guilty ofnegligence to check the increasing numbers of illiterate Filipinos. Illiteracy to me, means the difficulty of a person to read and write, and even if he or she can read or write, the comprehension is low and have difficulty following simple written instructions. Education has been in the backburner and no serious effort was made to make it a major strategy for our progress. Education has a dramatic effect on economic development and growth. In fact, other countriesare starting to realize how drop-out rates affect to their economies. In the Philippines, nobodyknows the extent of its effect.
It appears that we lost sight of the implications of this issue, because there is no statistical data toshow how much was lost in terms of peso value due to school drop-outs and illiteracy. What I amsaying is that, it is not only lost opportunity to get better income, but the government also lost taxrevenues from a productive and competitive population.
School non-completion affects so many things. It increases criminal activity, and adds to cost of prison and welfare services. By simply following a simple linear cause and effect analysis, they have lower lifetime earnings, which reduces buying power, lowers tax revenues for governments and reduces economic growth. When you extend your analysis, it results to decreased health status, more criminal activity, higher rates of teen