More children missing schools in Mindanao due to wars — NGO

KIDAPAWAN CITY — Four out of 10 children and youth aged three to 25 in Central Mindanao are missing schools due to armed conflict, according to E-Net Philippines, a non-government organization based here.

The ratio, according to E-Net Philippines project director Addie Unsi, is three times higher than the national average, which is 14 percent.

Some of these children and youth who are out of schools are considered illiterate due to their inability to read and write.

Today, there are about 15 million illiterate Filipinos, about 27 percent higher than in 2003, the E-Net Philippines said.

The illiteracy rate is expected to increase as more and more children are dropping out of schools due to armed conflict in Central Mindanao, according to Edicio de la Torre, president of the Civil Society Network for Education Reforms (E-Net).

When armed skirmishes broke out in North Cotabato and Maguindanao in Central Mindanao in August last year, 4,652 pupils were denied access to education, data showed.

These children, E-Net reports added, were also exposed to other harsh conditions, including viral infections, in the evacuation camps.

In 2008, seven children died due to infectious diseases at the evacuation camps in Maguindanao, the E-Net Philippines said.

“The statistics tells us that the greatest impact of war is on the lives of the internally-displaced children, their health, education and future,” said E-Net Philippines project associate Jinky Flogimon-Boholst.

The group has called on the Philippine government and other stakeholders to do something to reduce the effect of wars to children.

To drumbeat their plea, representatives from the Local School Board (LSB) and Local Government Units (LGU) of Tulunan town in North Cotabato; Datu Paglas and Paglat towns in Maguindanao; and Columbio town in Sultan Kudarat will tour different concerned agencies in Metro Manila.

The tour will start this Sunday and will culminate on October 3.

As part of their lobbying, the trip also includes dialog and forum with officials of the Department of Education (DepEd) as Local School board officials from Central Mindanao call on the national government to look into the plight of the internally-displaced children in the region.

The tour, accordingly, is part of the support system provided by the project dubbed as, Partners in Education for Community Empowerment, a consortium of four NGOs, including the E-Net Philippines, Oxfam Great Britain, Community of Learners Foundation, and Balay Rehabilitation Center.

The partner NGOs help facilitate delivery of service, capacity building, information campaign, and advocacy for education in conflict-affected areas.

“The tour aims to learn good practices and to lobby at the Central DepEd and congress the right to education of IDPs in armed conflict areas through policies, policy action,” the E-Net Philippines said. PNA