DepEd to set-up pre-schools to arrest high drop-out rate
By Desiree Caluza
Northern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 20:11:00 05/11/2008
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines--The Department of Education will put in place pre-school programs in low-performing elementary schools to improve student performance and arrest the high dropout rate in these schools.
Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said here that DepEd data showed many students dropping out of school between Grades 1 and 3, accounting for 24 percent of all drop-outs in public elementary schools in the country.
"If we will be able to salvage the number of dropouts, then we will have more children graduating from elementary and high schools," Lapus said in a press forum here.
He said at least 1,900 schools performed poorly in the recent National Achievement Test for public elementary schools in the country.
The pre-schools being advocated by Lapus will expose five-year-old children to formal learning before they enter elementary school. The program, he said, would be complemented by the conversion of barangay (village) day-care centers to learning centers for children in the communities.
Sen. Loren Legarda, in a press forum here on Sunday, said she would file a bill to make pre-school education free to support the DepEd's thrust to improve education in the country.
Only about 40 percent of children entering Grade 1 are prepared to withstand the rigors of formal education, according to Lapus.
"The remaining 60 percent of students are not ready for formal schooling. They cannot be easily ordered to sit; they cannot easily follow instructions. They have no basic numerical and alphabetical skills," Lapus said Saturday.
He said children who dropped out of school did not only lack basic skills but were found to be poorly nourished and sickly.
Some of these children have hearing and sight problems and are malnourished, according to the education secretary.
"If we were able to improve the situation, we could say that we did an excellent strategy… What's the use of adding Grades 7 and 8 to elementary education if we are having dropouts [by] Grade 3? Our efforts, plans and targets are clear and doable," said Lapus.
A DepEd comparative performance report from July 1998 to 2008 showed that hunger and malnutrition were among the causes of children's poor or non-participation in basic education.
The report said that before 2006, DepEd was "modestly" investing in school feeding programs. From 2006 onwards, there was an "unprecedented increase" in investments for school feeding programs, it said.
"In terms of coverage, pupil beneficiaries in 2006 rose by over 300 percent in 2007. Further, the proportion of children with 'below nutritional status' improved from 21 percent in 2006 to 17 percent in 2007. Finally, there was a reported increase in the attendance of school children, from 85 percent in 2006 to 95 percent in 2007," the report said.
Lapus said the budget appropriation for education was P149 billion in 2008, up from P137 billion in 2007. He said the private sector contributed at least P12 billion for education-related programs in 2007.
The report said private sector support for basic education through the "Adopt-a-School program" generated P200 million in 2002, P400 million in 2003, and P4 billion in 2007.
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