Name: Lariosa, Cherry May A.

Course: Current Issues and

Problems in Education

Course: MAED – Admin & Supervision Date: November 06, 2022

REACTION PAPER # 2
“REDUCING DROP-OUT RATES
IN THE PHILIPPINES”

SYNTHESIS
According to S. Botswick (2019), the Philippines has 45,973 public
schools throughout the country, of which, 38,503 are elementary schools, and 7,470 are
high schools. There are a total of 27.7 million students in the Philippines with 22.9 million
going to public schools and 4.8 million going to private schools. Funding for education
in the Philippines as of 2018 is 672.41 billion Philippine pesos or 12.8 billion USD. This
funding is among the lowest budgeted among the Association of Southeast Asian Nation
(ASEAN) countries.

The Philippines currently has the highest dropout rates among all of the ASEAN
countries, with a dropout rate of 6.38 percent in elementary students and 7.82 percent of
secondary school students. There are a number of reasons for the high dropout rate, but
the top three reasons seem to be: Hunger, students will skip class to find something to eat
when there is no food at home or at school. Work, to help provide for their families students
will stay at home and work on family farms or businesses. Conflict, this problem is
primarily in the southern regions of the country in Mindanao where there have been
insurgents disrupting life for the past 50 years. Today, there are currently 1.4 million
students who are out-of-school in the Philippines.

According to Deped (2021), Learners did not drop out from school, but they either
shifted from one mode of learning to another or migrated from one geographical location to
another. Learners’ migration is observed due to the economic impact of the pandemic. Data
showed that students have either moved from city to provincial schools or from private to
public schools. Other learners, meanwhile, have decided to shift from solely modular to
blended learning, wherein they can also tap into TV, online, and radio resources available
at their respective schools. In addition, the slow return of students to schools after holiday
season and school vacations is typically observed annually.
 REACTION
The reporter discussed about the factors of the reason of students drop-out in the
Philippines. There are only two factors that I want to react namely: Personal Factor and
Family Factor. Family factor of drop-outs are the student who decided not to continue their
studies for having family issues. This topic flashes me back to my Grade 5 student when I
has my substitute class in Polog Elementary School, Consolacion, Cebu. His name is
Herby. He is a very good performing student. He excels well in our class and he is even a
very fast learner. After weeks being with my class, Herby frequently being absent in my
whole class. After days of not seeing him, I got a news from his mom that his father died.
The child was so affected of his father’s death and his mother decided to move him away
from their place. So, Herby’s mother sent him to Bantayan Elementary School and he
dropped from my class. I hope that Herby can pull through the difficult situations in his life
right now because I can really see his potentials. Personal factor of drop-outs are the
student who decided not to continue their studies for some personal reasons. I remember
my student in one of the schools here in Cebu. His nationality is Nigerian. He is an athlete.
He informed me late that he is my student in the subject, Industrial Psychology. So, he did
not attend to my class for three meetings. When the examination is nearly coming, he
informed me that he cannot continue his studies because he is not yet in the Philippines. I
also knew from their class mayor that this student always retake this subject because this
student is wealthy in their country and can pay thousands of money for his studies even if
it is a waste.

Therefore, let us not look at one side of the coin and make our criticisms only to our
Educational Officials. There are lots of factors of drop-outs in the Philippines and one of the
most dominant is due to poverty and family issues. I hope that Filipino families can uplift
their family ties so no matter what challenges they may face they will still see the value of
education in our nation building.

REFERENCES
https://borgenproject.org/education-in-the-philippines-2/
https://www.deped.gov.ph/2021/01/28/on-claims-of-massive-dropout-in-basic-
education/