Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian —Senate PRIB
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines stands on a unique ground with most girls outperforming boys in terms of academic viewpoint, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian disclosed.
He, however, noted that many 15-year-old girls drop out of school due to teenage pregnancy.
Gathalian aired his concern during the Senate committee on basic education’s Wednesday hearing on the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results.
Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, Gatchalian revealed that in 2017, one out of every ten 15 to 19 year-olds become pregnant.
In 2022, the number has significantly gone down, but Gatchalian emphasized that in terms of pregnancy from Filipinas 15 years of age, it “actually went up” from .5 to 1.4 percent.
“Even though girls outperform boys in our country in terms of academic performance, a lot of them drop out because of teenage pregnancy,” said Gatchalian.
“I want to focus on this. Definitely this is a societal problem, but we should also face this,” he added.
The senator brought up the issue noting that it was among the significant issues hounding the 2022 PISA results.
PISA, a triennial test conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, seeks to determine the academic performance of 15 year-old students in reading, mathematics, and science.
The country’s 2022 PISA score showed that Filipino students who took part in the assessment were up to six years behind compared to their fellow 15-year-olds who underwent the test.
Sex education in PH
Later in the hearing, Gatchalian asked the Department of Education how comprehensive sex education is being taught in Philippine schools.
According to Gatchalian, there are two points to identify: One, if there’s a way to prevent teenage pregnancy by means of teaching students about sex education. Two, are there mechanisms that allow teenage mothers to go back to school?
For their part, DepEd Assistant Secretary Alma Torio admitted that sex education is not taught as a “stand alone subject” or a “separate learning area” in basic education.
“As you may know, we have nine learning areas — now eight for the MATATAG curriculum, but this issue is integrated in different learning areas,” he emphasized.
This then prompted Gatchalian to recommend that DepEd revisit and intensify its Comprehensive Sexuality Education.
“Whether it’s sexuality education or sex education. Let’s revisit this because I regret it, our girl students are good but they are not aware of sex education, not aware of their bodies, and not aware of the perils if they get pregnant early then they will drop out and become full time mothers,” said Gatchalian.
“The problem with that is they will not go back to school or they will end up with no skills to get gainfully employed. The way forward is to prevent it,” he emphasized.