Govt dole fails to stem school dropouts—Luistro

THE monthly government dole to poor families in its conditional cash transfer program has done little to reduce the elementary school dropout rate, Education Secretary Armin Luistro said Monday.

He told the Senate’s budget hearings the dropout rate remained at 25 percent. This meant one in four pupils enrolled in Grade 1 would fail to reach Grade 4 despite the government incentives to poor families to keep their children in school 85 percent of the time.

“In our study, the two main reasons children fail to go to school is the lack of preparation for them to attend Grade 1 and the lack of transportation to keep them in school,” Luistro said.

He said his department’s curriculum for the primary schools was the same for all pupils, even though children in the cities had a huge advantage over those in the rural areas because of their access to preschool educational materials and the media.

“There’s a big disparity between our children in the urban and rural areas that has to be bridged with the introduction of a national preschool education, and we believe the solution is the kindergarten program,” Luistro said.

He said the P23-billion government dole this year had no direct bearing on keeping pupils in school as the department’s study showed the lack of transportation in the countryside continued to raise the dropout rate.

“There’s no transportation even if they have money for fare,” Luistro said.

Despite the questions raised on the dole’s effectiveness, the Aquino administration wants to increase the financing for the Social Welfare Department’s conditional cash transfer program to P39 billion next year from P23 billion this year, and to raise the number of beneficiaries to 3 million from 2.3 million.

In all, Social Welfare wants to spend P306.6 billion on the cash handouts for the rest of the administration’s term.

Last week, the House of Representatives approved the government’s P1.8-trillion national budget for 2012, leaving the 69-percent increase in its conditional cash transfer allocation intact.

Senator Edgardo Angara, chairman of the committee on education, arts and culture, asked Luistro to conduct a study specifically on the effects of the conditional cash transfer program that would help determine if the government handouts should be continued.

“Maybe it’s wiser to use the funds in other ways to promote and strengthen the public education system,” Angara said.

Senator Franklin Drilon sought a review of the Education Department’s school building program with the Public Works Department.

Drilon said the department had been spending P650,000 per classroom while he had managed to build the same kind of classroom for half the price using his pork barrel.

Luistro said the contractors working for the department had to pay taxes, while donated projects such as Drilon’s classrooms were tax-exempt.

Still, Drilon said that should not double the costs.

“I understand the contractors have to make a profit, but 100 percent is too much,” he said.

“They should look into this. They can double the number of classrooms for the same amount.’’ –Rey T. Salita, Manila Standard Today