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The
worsening enrollment rates in many provinces is now
making it impossible for the Philippines to meet the
education targets stated in the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs), according to the National Statistical
Coordination Board (NSCB).
The NSCB,
citing data from the Department of Education (DepEd),
said the net enrollment ratio (NER) or the participation
rate of elementary students for school year (SY) 2006-07
was only 83.2 percent, lower by 1.2 percentage points
from the previous school year.
Similarly, on the secondary level, NER increased barely
by 0.1 percentage point in SY 2006-07. The NSCB also
noted that there was no significant change in the NER in
the last five years, with only a change of 58 percent to
60 percent.“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 MDG on education as well as the Philippine EFA 2015
Plan,” NSCB said in a statement.
Data
from the DepEd showed that the NER for the elementary
level is on a decreasing trend from SY 2002-03 to SY
2006-07. The NSCB also noted that at the regional level,
there were also declines in NER during the five-year
period, except for the National Capital Region (NCR) and
Caraga, which exhibited increases, but only in SY
2006-07.
The data
showed that Western Mindanao posted the largest decrease
of 12.1 percentage points, followed by Western Visayas
and the Cordillera Autonomous Region with 11.0 and 10.6
percentage points, respectively. In terms of regional
rankings for NER, NCR, Central Luzon and Calabarzon
topped the other regions during the five-year period.
In terms
of the secondary level, around 12 out of the 17 regions
experienced declines in NER from SY 2002-03 to SY
2006-07, with the Mindanao regions having the lowest
NERs.
Although
ARMM had the lowest NER during the five-year period, it
posted the biggest improvement with an increase of 8.9
percentage points, to 32.6 percent in SY 2006-07 from
23.7 percent in SY 2002-03.
Among
the provinces, for SY 2006-07, Davao del Sur had the
lowest NER for elementary level at 63.5 percent and Sulu
for secondary level at 15.2 percent. |
