MANILA, Philippines—One in six school-age children is being deprived of education and the number is rising steadily, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said Monday, indicating that the country is still far from its goal of providing education to all.

The percentage of children enrolled in primary school was down to 83 percent in the 2006-2007 school year from 90 percent five years earlier, the NSCB said in a study, according to Agence France Presse (AFP).

The numbers are even worse for secondary education at 59 percent, though they have been steady over five years, AFP said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo acknowledged last month that the rising cost of food and energy might be pricing education out of the reach of some Filipino families. She ordered schools not to require their students to wear uniforms to reduce the cost.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus Monday said the Department of Education (DepEd) was aware of the problem and was “squarely addressing the situation.”

But he also said that the latest survey for school year 2007-2008 showed an improvement with a participation rate of 85 percent.

To counter the dwindling number of school enrollees due to widespread poverty, Lapus said that the DepEd was focusing its efforts to get children aged 5-11 years old to school.

He said studies showed that if students in the primary school were prepared well until they reach the third grade, they were most likely to stay in school.

The DepEd’s recent projects like the alternative learning systems, feeding programs, and the “no collection and no uniform policies” are primarily intended to make sure that schoolchildren are able to enroll and stay in school, Lapus said.

He said the DepEd was also counting on the private sector to support basic education. He said that private sector through the adopt-a-school program, for example, had contributed P4.05 billion in 2007 from only P400 million in 2003.

“We expect significant improvements in the participation rate with all these measures,” said Lapus.

The NSCB said the number of Filipino children who did not have access to primary education worsened to 16.8 percent of the school-age population in the school year ending 2007 from 15.6 percent the previous year because of the rising cost of living.

The latest number of children who did not have access to elementary education was even worse compared with the 9.7 percent recorded in school year ending 2003.

The figures were based on a report released over the weekend by the NSCB. The report said that the net enrollment ratio for elementary education settled at 83.2 percent in school year 2006-2007, falling from 84.4 percent the previous school year.

Net enrollment ratio is the proportion of children going to school to the total number of school-age children. For elementary, the official school age is between 6 and 11 years old.

Millennium dev’t goal off

The NSCB said the failure of the country to send more of its school-age children to school kept it off-track of the government’s target under the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) that all Filipino children will have access to basic education by 2015.

Out of the 17 regions of the country, Western Visayas was the worst performer. In the region, 25 percent of children ages 6 to 11 years old were not going to elementary school. This translated to a net enrollment ratio of 75 percent.

The best performer was the National Capital Region, where only 7.1 percent of elementary-age children were not in school, posting a net enrollment ratio of 92.9 percent.

The number of Filipino youths aged 12 to 15 who were not able to attend high school stood at 41.4 percent of their population, translating to a net enrollment ratio of 58.5 percent.

The latest number of out-of-high school youths was slightly better than the 41.5 percent recorded in school year 2005-2006, but was worse than the 41 percent recorded in school year 2002-2003.

Result of rising prices

Augusto Santos, director general of the National Economic and Development Authority, said the rise in the number of out-of-elementary school children was a result of the rising prices of goods and services.

Although public schools offer free tuition, Santos said, some families still could not afford to send their children to school because of other necessary expenses related to schooling, including transportation, food, uniform and books.

“The government provides free tuition for elementary and high school. But the government still does not have enough budget to cover for other expenses like books, transportation, clothing, and baon (allowance),” he explained.

“The decline in the number of enrollees has something to do more with price increases. Although incomes of families increased, the rise was not enough to compensate for the rising cost of goods and services, such as those required in sending children to school,” Santos said in a phone interview.

Getting back on track

He agreed that the Philippines was now off-track in meeting the goal of sending all school-age children to school by 2015. But he said the government was already conducting programs that will still bring it back on track of meeting the goal.

“There are three MDGs that the government might not be able to meet by 2015 if nothing is done about the present situation, and the goal on sending all children to school is one of them,” Santos said. The other two MDGs are related to reducing maternal mortality rate and improving access of people to family planning programs of the government.

But Santos said the government had already conducted programs that would help the country get back on track of its goal of having 100 percent of its school-age children enrolled in school by 2015.

“We are providing a kilo of rice if a child go to school every day, a certain amount of money to keep children in school. At the very least they are two programs of government which is intended to increase access to elementary education. With a report from Jerry Esplanada and Agence France-Presse