THE Philippines is “far from achieving Education for All” by 2015, concluded a fact sheet released on July 11 by the National Statistical Coordination Board.
The NSCB, which consolidates facts and figures from different government agencies, pointed to the consistent drop in the net enrolment ratio or participation rate at the elementary level from schoolyear 2002-03 to schoolyear 2006-07 as among the reasons for saying so.
Quoting the latest figures from the Department of Education, the NSCB said participation rate in Philippine elementary schools in schoolyear 2006-07 stood at 83.2 percent, lower by 1.2 percentage points from the previous school year.
The NSCB said participation rate at the high school level, on the other hand, has only been 58 to 60 percent. It increased barely by 0.1 point in schoolyear 2006-07.
Net enrolment ratio or participation rate is the ratio of the enrolment for the age group corresponding to the official school age in the elementary or secondary level to the population of the same age group in a given year. The official school age is 6-11 for elementary and 12-15 for secondary.
“These figures for both elementary and secondary education indicate that the country is still far from achieving the goal of providing basic education to all based on UNESCO’s World Declaration on Education for All (EFA), UN’s Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on education as well as the Philippine EFA 2015 Plan,” the NSCB said.
A midterm report of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization on the progress of countries achieving EFA has said the Philippines is in danger of not meeting all the goals by 2015, especially on gender parity and adult literacy. The other EFA goals are expanded early childhood care and education; free and compulsory primary education for all; learning and life skills for young people and adults; and improved quality of education.
The eight MDGs include achieving universal primary education.
The NSCB said the net enrolment ratio at the elementary levels dropped in all regions in the last last years except in Metro Manila and and Caraga which showed increases but only in school 2006-07. Western Mindanao posted the biggest decline, followed by Western Visayas and the Cordillera Administrative Region.
Among the provinces, Davao del Sur had the lowest NER for elementary level and Sulu for high school.
