THE Philippines scored quite a good ranking in the World Economic Forum’s 2015 Human Capital Index (HCI), which measures how well an economy develops and deploys its talent pool.
At an overall 46th out of 124 economies surveyed, we are second in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (next only to Singapore), sixth among 22 Asia-Pacific economies, and fourth among 31 lower-middle income countries. Such ranking underscores our competitiveness as an investment destination and how we are better poised to capitalize on the benefits of a young labor force.
In fact, the country performed best in the 15 to 24 age group (20th) as respondents in an executive opinion survey gave decent scores for the quality of our education system. This indicates how increased educational investments in the past five years—albeit still below the international benchmark of 5 percent of gross domestic product—are already bearing fruit.
Similar respectable ratings were observed in older age groups—51st for the 25-54 cohort; 40th for 55-64; and 33rd for 65 and over). However, we performed worst in the under-15 age group (73rd); our score dragged down by our poor primary enrollment rate.
In 2011 the government estimated there were more than 6 million out-of-school youth in the country and roughly 3.2 million children working in hazardous work environments, instead of getting a meaningful education.
To be fair, this is not a problem solely of the Philippines, as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization recently reported that only a third of 164 governments were able to fulfill their education-related pledges, including universal primary education, under the 2000 to 2015 Education for All initiative.
Recently, the International Monetary Fund said that favorable demographics will continue to be a major driver of the Philippines’s fast economic growth, which was projected to stay “exceptional” amid lackluster performance across Asia. However, the benefits of favorable demographics will be short-lived, if so many of our young children are out of school or if we choose an ineffective leader in 2016.
E-mail: angara.ed@gmail.com.