Gaps remain as PH misses 2015 education goals

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines may have seen progress in some indicators of the Education for All (EFA) initiative, but most of the “upward movements have been too slow to make it to target by 2015.”

The update came from the Philippines’ EFA 2015 National Review, which complements the 2015 EFA Global Monitoring Report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).

The latest global report says only a third of the world’s countries succeeded in their efforts to provide universal basic education – a commitment made by 164 countries during Unesco’s World Education Forum in 2000.

The 6 EFA goals are: 

• Expand early childhood care and education
• Provide free and compulsory primary education for all
• Promote learning and life skills for young people and adults
• Increase adult literacy by 50%
• Achieve gender parity by 2005, gender equality by 2015
• Improve the quality of education

“The world has made significant progress,” Unesco Director General Irina Bokova said.

“Millions more children are in school than would have been had the trends of the 1990s persisted.”

But governments need to “prioritize the poorest – especially girls,” she added.

Around 58 million children are still out of school globally and 100 million children fail to complete primary education.

In the Philippines, the following gaps in education have been reported as of 2013:

• Data needed to measure the gaps for early childhood care and development (ECCD), life skills for youth and adults and adult literacy
• Policies and programs to increase literacy among adults
• Grade 1 entrants having some form of ECCD experience – 18%-point gap
• Kindergarten level net enrollment rate – 23%-point gap
• Elementary level net enrollment rate – 5%-point gap
• Secondary level net enrollment rate – 35%-point gap
• Completion rate to ensure all school‐age children finish basic education – More than 25%-point gap
• Eradication of basic illiteracy – 4%-point gap
• Eradication of functional illiteracy – 14%-point gap
• Elementary level reaching ideal 75% score of EFA – 6%-point gap
• Secondary level reaching ideal 75% score of EFA – 24%-point gap

 

The Philippines’ EFA report said boys are at a disadvantage in most of the EFA indicators.

“The gender pattern in the Philippines is different from the majority of developing countries where girls are at the disadvantage. In the Philippines, it is the boys who are not participating equally in basic education. They leave school before completing their basic education and have lower literacy and academic achievement rates,” the report said.

This gender disparity emerges in secondary education, but “mechanisms and policies focus largely on women and girls,” according to a Vera Files article on the global EFA report.

Inequality also persists in the country, where only 69% of grade school graduates from poor families transition to high school, compared to 94% graduates from rich families.

The poorest children are “4 times more likely to be out of school and 5 times more likely not to complete primary education than the richest,” Bokova said.

Problems in schools

The Philippines also saw “little improvement” in the total percentage of fully-immunized children, according to the Vera Files report.

Unesco noted the country “hasn’t fully decentralized governance of basic education,” as national government still allocates resources to schools and determines curriculum content, instructional time, and teacher salaries.

Poor school infrastructure and lack of maintenance remain a problem in the Philippines, with only one in 3 schools in “good physical condition – without broken windows or peeling paint.”

Based on Unesco’s database, computer resources are also “greatly overstretched,” with over 100 Filipino learners sharing one computer unit at the primary level.

And a third of pupils in the Philippines complained of “teachers’ late arrival, absenteeism, and skipping class,” which shows the required teaching times does not match actual learning time.

Beyond 2015

But the good news is that Unesco still considers the country as among those “likely to achieve some of the EFA goals in the coming years if it keeps up its efforts,” according to Vera Files. 

For instance, the UN agency said the Philippines has made “strong progress” to achieve 80% gross enrollment ratio.

Unesco also lauded the country’s good practices – such as school feeding and compulsory kindergarten education – which helped improve access to quality education.

The Philippines has already put in place the EFA Acceleration Plan 2015, which includes provisions for a broad EFA strategy, funding, monitoring, and evaluation.

Long-term education targets include:

• Improving EFA monitoring and evaluation
• Revitalizing the purpose of the Alternative Learning System
• Evaluating the effectiveness of alternative delivery modes
• Raising the standards of Early Childhood Care and Development Programs
• Improving quality kindergarten to 12 years of basic education
• Enhancing the teaching and learning methods
• Utilizing information and communications technology for education
• Building resiliency and improving disaster response
• Strengthening education organizations/institutions

The Philippine government is also addressing other challenges to universal education such as poverty, climate change, devastating disasters, armed conflict, and threats to the safety and security of schoolchildren.

Unesco’s global report comes a month ahead of the World Education Forum in Incheon, South Korea which will set new education targets for 2030. (READ: Education for all by 2015? Not happening, says Unesco)

To meet these targets, Unesco said the international community will need an additional $22 billion, while governments must devote 15% to 20% of their national budgets to education. – with reports from Agence France-Presse and Jee Geronimo/Rappler.com

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