High school dropouts increasing

Sen. Manuel B. Villar Jr., chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, expressed alarm yesterday over the pronouncement of the Department of Education (DepEd) during its 2006 budget deliberation that the number of dropouts in schools in the country is increasing.

Based on DepEd’s presentation, for every 100 children entering Grade 1, only 68 will reach Grade 6. Out of this, only around 66 of them would be able to graduate and finish elementary schooling.

Furthermore, out of the 58 who enter high school, only 43 would be able to finish secondary education. Of the 43 students who completed high school, only 23 go to college and only 14 will graduate with a university degree.

"I agree with DepEd officials that we really need to address this gross dropout situation. As it is, the number of out-of-school youths in our country has already reached alarming levels, so we should prevent more dropouts from adding to the statistics," Villar, president of the Nacionalista Party, said.

Another survey of the National Statistics Office (NSO) revealed that one out of every three Filipinos between the age of six and 24 has never received any formal education or has dropped out or quit school prematurely. This translates to 11.6 million Filipinos or 34 percent of the country’s six-to-24 age bracket. It also cited that one in 10 Filipinos aged between 10 and 64 cannot read or write at all and that two in 10 Filipinos are "functionally illiterate" or lack numerical skills and cannot perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division.

"An educated populace is a big factor in the growth and development of a nation. We should find ways and means to bring these youths back to school and to be educated whether formally or informally," Villar said

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