The high cost of education only came third on the list of reasons many Filipino children are not attending school, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO).
Based on the NSO’s 2011 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS), only 10.5 percent of Filipino children aged 6 to 11 said they are not in school because of the high cost of education.
The NSO said the top reason is lack of personal interest. Some 51.3 percent of Filipino children aged 6 to 11 said the reason they are not in school is they are not interested to go to school.
The second top reason cited by the age group is illness or disability. Around 15.2 percent said this is the reason they are not in school.
“According to the results of 2011 APIS, one in every 10 children aged 6 to 17 was not attending formal school. Among the regions, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao [ARMM] had the highest proportion [16 percent] of children aged 6 to 17 who were not attending formal school, while the NCR [National Capital Region] had the lowest [7 percent],” the NSO said.
In terms of those aged 12 to 17, the high cost of education only came fourth on the list of reasons children are not at school. Data showed in this age group, the high cost of education was cited by only 3.3 percent of those surveyed.
The top three reasons children in this age group were not in school were lack of personal interest, 38.1 percent; employment or looking for work, 13.1 percent; and illness/disability, 3.8 percent.
However, around 9 out of 10 children 6 to 17 years old were literate based on the results of the 2008 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey.
Region 1—Ilocos—had the highest basic literacy rate, with 95 percent; and Region 10 —Northern Mindanao—had the lowest (83 percent).
In this survey, basic literacy status of an individual was determined based on the respondent’s answer to the question “Can read and write a simple message in any language or dialect?”
The NSO said nationwide, around 86 percent of children aged 10 to 17 were functionally literate. Among the regions, Region 4A—Calabarzon—had the highest functional literacy rate (92 percent), followed by the NCR, Cordillera Administrative Region and Region 3—Calabarzon—with 90 percent each.
Region 8—Eastern Visayas—had the lowest functional literacy rate (70 percent). In the survey, a person who can read, write and compute based on answers to a set of questions were considered as functional literate.
According to the results of 2011 APIS, which covered around 51,000 sample households nationwide, 28 percent of children aged 0 to 17 were living in poor families, or in bottom 30 percent per-capita income stratum.
In this survey, the NSO said families who fall at the bottom 30 percent per-capita income bracket were considered poor, while those in the upper 70 percent were classified as non-poor.
The top three regions with highest proportion of children aged 0 to 17 living in poor families were Region 9—Zamboanga peninsula—with 49 percent of its total children aged 0 to 17; Region 12—Soccsksargen, 46 percent; and Region 4B—Mimaropa— 43 percent.
The NCR had the lowest proportion of children aged 0 to 17 living in poor families, with 4 percent. –Cai U. Ordinario, Businessmirror
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