Issue # 1 | January 2013 - SEAMEO INNOTECH: Home€¢ The number of alternative learning system participants has been increasing along with the number of accreditation and equivalency

1SEAMEO INNOTECH Research Updates

S E A M E O I N N OT E C H

RESEARCH Updates

According to the Jomtien Declaration and the Dakar Framework for Action, which draw on the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948) and subsequent international treaties, education is a human right. These treaties established the right to education and nondiscrimination and have the force of law for the governments that ratified them. Specific provisions of these conventions emphasize free and compulsory primary education and serve as the backbone of education for all goals (Education for All Global Monitoring Report, 2008).

The Philippine Constitution, meanwhile, stipulates that the state shall, among others, “establish, maintain, and support a complete, adequate, and integrated educational system relevant to the people and society’s

needs as well as establish and maintain a system of free public elementary and secondary education.”

Education is considered a major contributor in improving the living standards of disadvantaged groups. For many poor Filipinos, obtaining education is a means toward achieving a better life. As such, the Philippine Education for All 2015 National Plan of Action asserts the importance of basic education as an anti-poverty instrument that can provide people skills, attitudes, knowledge, and values they can use to obtain access to useful information and a united approach to attain greater productivity. It can also empower the marginalized and prevent them from being exploited by and alienated from the development process.

In this update:Philippine Education for All 2015 Plan of Action Progress

Philippine Education for All 2015 Assessment

Issue # 1 | January 2013

2 SEAMEO INNOTECH Research Updates

Anchored on the Dakar Framework for Action on Education for All, the Philippine Education for

All 2015 Plan of Action is the overarching framework for basic education in the Philippines. It emphasizes the need to provide basic education for all and add a dimension to what has been almost exclusively school-based education. It points to an “urgent need to respond to the learning needs of the youth and adults who have never been to school, dropped out, reverted to illiteracy, or need basic or advanced skills to find jobs.” It suggests a viable alternative to formal schooling that can ensure minimum learning achievement for all Filipinos. It stresses that educational opportunities are channels of learning that can become effective conduits of values

orientation, consciousness, and information that is useful and relevant to a wide range of social goals.

Even though the Philippine Education for All 2015 Plan of Action was only approved in 2006, the Department of Education had already been using it as the overall planning and policy framework as early as 2003 and integrated it in formulating and updating the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan 2001–2004 and Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan 2005–2010.

Based on the Basic Education Blueprint, the Philippine government should provide every citizen basic competencies to achieve functional literacy through the following component objectives:

Philippine Education for All 2015 Plan of Action

“By 2015, the Philippine government hopes to attain an 84.6% functional literacy level by eradicating the remaining 13.6% functionally illiterate 10+-year-olds.”


• Universal basic learning needs provisioncoverageofout-of-schoolyouthandadults

• Universal school participation andeliminationofschoolleaversandrepeatersinthefirstthreegrades

• Universal completion of the full basiceducation cycle with satisfactory annualachievementlevels

• Total community commitment to attainingbasiceducationalcompetenceforall

Attaining the set goals requires fulfilling nine urgent and critical tasks (i.e., better schools, early childhood care and development, alternative learning systems, teachers, longer educational cycle, and curriculum) that should yield desired educational outcomes and three enabling tasks (i.e., funding, governance, and progress monitoring) necessary to sustain effective implementation.

By 2015, the Philippine government hopes to attain an 84.6% functional literacy level. According to the 2008 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey, 84.9% of Filipino 10+-year-olds remained functionally literate. Despite meeting the 2015 education for all target, achieving universal functional literacy still requires providing the remaining 13.6% functionally illiterate Filipinos basic learning needs by fulfilling the goals the Philippine government set.

Universal Basic Learning Needs Provision Coverage of Out-of-School Youth and Adults

• The number of functionally literate Filipinos has been increasing as shown in the 2003 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey and 2008 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey. A 2-percentage point increase in the out-of-school youth and adult functional literacy rate was recorded.

• The number of alternative learning system participants has been increasing along with the number of accreditation and equivalency test takers and passers.

• Governance and funding policies have been put in place to ensure the proper implementation of literacy programs. To try and meet the basic learning needs of 9M illiterate Filipinos, DepEd’s allocation for literacy programs is complemented with resources from LGUs, NGOs, private sector foundations, etc. Total funding, however, is not adequate for universal basic learning needs provision for OSCY and illiterate adults.

• Information is being generated, systematized, and disseminated to promote alternative learning programs in order to solicit greater support from allies and encourage more illiterates to study. Additional advocacy to meet the demand for alternative learning resources to ensure adequate supply of radio- and information- and communication technology-based literacy programs is needed.

• Other modalities of learning and testing are being developed and implemented to reach a wider base of clientele. Successful pilots, however, need to be brought to a grander scale. Lack of available consolidated data regarding levels of literacy skill improvement remains an issue of concern.

• The increasing number of out-of-school youth served by alternative learning programs and lack of a systematic management information system make it difficult to determine who they are, where they are, and what are their priority learning needs.

“Providing educational services is the highest form of generosity.”

—Mayor Sandra Eriguel of Agoo, La UnionConfucius Prize for Literacy awardee


Universal School Participation and Elimination of School Leavers and Repeaters in the First Three Grades

• All access indicators showed an increasing trend in the past five years since School Year 2006–2007, including a 0.5% annual average increase in the elementary enrolment rate, a 0.2% increase in the secondary enrolment rate, and a 13.6% increase in the early childhood education enrolment rate. The surge in the gross early childhood education enrolment rate could be attributed to the government’s intense effort to expand its early childhood care and development coverage by establishing more day-care centers and public preschools and offering alternatives such as community-based day-care centers and summer preschools. An expected increase in this access indicator was seen when “universal kindergarten” was launched in School Year 2011–2012.

• With only a 0.5% annual average increase, the number of grade 1 students who took early childhood education has not been increasing much as compared to the early childhood education gross enrolment that registered an annual average increase of 14% from School Year 2006-2007 to School Year 2010-2011. The number of grade 1 entrants aged 6 also increased from 44% in School Year 2006–2007 to 63% in School Year 2010–2011. Elementary participation rate is at 95.96% in SY 2010-2011. This marks significant progress towards universalization of primary education. At the secondary level, access remains far from universalization with 64.84% net enrolment rate in School Year 2010-2011. The repetition rate did not improve significantly with only a 0.1% annual average increase. The school leaver rate also only barely increased by 0.02% from School Year 2006–2007 to School Year 2010–2011.

• School-based management has been empowering schools through decentralization

and greater stakeholder involvement. School personnel led by the school head, together with parents, community members, local executives, private entities, and nongovernmental organizations, are making schools more inviting and responsive to learners. Moreover, schools are now more capable of implementing programs such as community censuses and educational campaigns to reach more children. They likewise receive more support to implement programs such as feeding and reading programs to keep children in school.

• This goal led to the implementation of important legislation such as the Kindergarten Act, which mandates providing preschool services to all 5-year-olds. Various preschool programs have been implemented to provide early childhood care and development services to marginalized children. Day-care services have been expanded as well through community-based modalities. Standards have also been set to ensure the quality of early childhood care and development services. Early childhood care and development programs have been reviewed and an information system to help monitor progress has been established.

• To eliminate school leavers and repeaters, Department of Education Order No. 74 s. 2009 institutionalized the use of the mother tongue in early grade education.

• A more holistic approach to early childhood care and development led to the convergence of national government agencies to provide access to effective services that particularly targeted marginalized and underserved children.

• The government has mobilized communities to set up home- or barangay-based early childhood care and development service centers, especially in areas with inaccessible day-care centers.

• Partnerships between government and private institutions have been forged by implementing the Preschool Service Contracting Scheme, which


gave 5-year-olds with no access to kindergarten the chance to avail of preschool education from nongovernmental and religious organizations or private individuals or groups.

• Such alliance led to the implementation of a presidential directive to expand preschool education offered by day-care centers. This required the Department of Education, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and local government units to work together.

• The Department of Education, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Department of Health, and LGUs also collaborated to implement the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. The poorest of the poor have been assisted to meet their educational, social, and healthcare needs.

“In the longer term, promoting school attendance and utilization of health centers can lead to improved

education and nutrition status for poor children, thereby helping to break the

intergenerational cycle of poverty.”

—World Bank, 2012, Philippine Social Protection Note on Impact of the Conditional Cash Transfer

Program in the Philippines

• Greater participation among stakeholders through school-governing councils led to active participation in formulating and implementing school improvement plans.


Universal Completion of the Full Basic Education Cycle with Satisfactory Annual Achievement Levels

• Except for the elementary completion rate, all other indicators for this goal increased in the past five years albeit at a slower than expected rate. If this slow trend continues, however, the education for all 2015 target may not be achieved unless measures are taken to accelerate improvement. Particular attention should be given to programs that help elementary students complete six years of education and secondary students increase their National Achievement Test mean percentage scores.

• Obtaining this goal involves institutionalizing the National Competency-Based Teaching Standards to motivate teachers to more effectively teach, which should result in better learning outcomes.

• This goal stresses much-needed reforms to align the educational system with international standards by changing its structure and introducing the seamless integration of kindergarten, elementary, and secondary education, including the additional senior high school grades. This has been achieved with the K to 12 reform agenda which added universal kindergarten and two years of senior high school to the secondary education cycle. The improved structure is expected to result in better-equipped students for higher education or future employment.

• This goal also reshapes the educational system with the use of the K to 12 Curriculum, which is expected to improve the quality of Philippine education. The Department of Education has introduced new curricular programs and refined and strengthened existing ones that effectively provided relevant quality education.

• The Department of Education instituted many programs to suit the needs of diverse learners such as IP, Muslim and differently-abled students so they can complete education with satisfactory

achievement levels. Effective alternative delivery modes such as the Enhanced Instructional Management by Parents, Communities, and Teachers relied heavily on the cooperation of parents and community members to succeed. Another program that helped students finish schooling was service contracting, which demonstrated that public-private partnerships work.

• Initiatives from local government units, the private sector, and civil society organizations also helped students complete schooling by providing financial assistance and scholarship grants.

• Collaboration among various sectors has also been demonstrated in developing and implementing better educational programs. The academe, government agencies, and many private entities also exerted effort to improve the teacher quality.


Total Community Commitment to Attaining Basic Educational Competence for All

• The National Education for All Committee, comprising government agencies and nongovernmental organizations concerned with education, has been organized to form part of the Grand Alliance. Many members of this alliance contribute to attaining education for all, although the majority has not made their contributions known. No mechanism has been put in place to document the accomplishment of the Grand Alliance. Local groups with a broad base of community support have been formed. Their actions and contributions have been helping the Department of Education fill in gaps at the local level.

• The educational expenditure, particularly that which seeks to address resource gaps such as lack of classrooms, teachers, and textbooks, has increased. Programs such as the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education Program and the Adopt-a-School Program have expanded educational financing via partnerships with the private sector.

• LGUs provide supplementary funding to support basic education through Special Education Funds (SEF) as mandated by RA 5447.

• Surveys such as the Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey and the Basic Learning Needs Survey and information systems such as the Enhanced Basic Education Information System have helped track the education for all progress and identified gaps that still need to be filled.

To achieve its education for all 2015 target, the Philippine government set

four goals:

• Universal basic learning needs provision coverage of out-of-school youth and adults

• Universal school participation and elimination of school leavers and repeaters in the first three grades

• Universal completion of the full basic education cycle with satisfactory annual achievement levels

• Total community commitment to attaining basic educational competence for all

Grand Alliance is a must if we are to make

quality education available to all.


Research Studies UnitS E A M E O I N N O T E C HCommonwealth Avenue,

Diliman, Quezon CityPhilippines 1101

Tel: (632) 924-7681 to 84Fax: (632) 351-7147

Email: [email protected]

Conclusion

Even though the Department of Education has made substantial progress in achieving its education for all, gaps between education performance and 2015 EFA targets still need to be filled. Since the launch of the Philippine Education for All 2015 National Plan of Action, the department has invested large amounts to provide quality education for all with funding help from nongovernmental organizations, resulting in more than PhP1.7 billion being mobilized from the private sector for the Adopt-a-School Program alone. Financial support for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program has also surged to more than PhP36 billion in School Year 2010–2011, giving the poorest of the poor access to education.

Compared with decades ago, more children have better access to formal education. Thanks to the collaboration between the government and nongovernmental organizations, fewer children remain out of school. Even in the poorest regions of Mindanao, the number of out-of-school children and youth has dramatically dropped. The elementary completion rate also increased. The average elementary enrolment rates rose to above 90%. Basic learning needs are increasingly being met and the functional literacy rate steadily rose from 2003 to 2008.

Improvement in access to education by ethnic and marginalized communities has been reported as well. However, children in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao continued to lag behind in terms of educational access and learning outcomes. A substantial gender gap also persists with girls outnumbering boys on all key indicators. Access to information has continued to widen as well between rich and poor communities. These challenges call for revitalizing education for all strategies in the next three years.

Issue # 1 | January 2013 - SEAMEO INNOTECH: Home€¢ The number of alternative learning system participants has been increasing along with the number of accreditation and equivalency

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