Mindanao’s poor left out in progress on education

Charina C. Sanz-Zarate / MindaNews / 17 November 2003

DAVAO CITY -- It is way past 6 p.m. Along a busy sidewalk in Anda St. here, 7-year-old Thessa sits on a stool, her head bent over a worn-out notebook where she writes her answers to a Math assignment. From time to time, she raises her head to glance at a textbook perched before her on an improvised desk prepared by her mother Cristy, a sidewalk vendor.

Behind Thessa, a throng of passersby rush to catch a ride home as PUJs caught in the traffic honks, blares and bleats. She remains bent over her homework, her little fingers holding a pencil, her only one she says, amid the noise and the heat right in the heart of downtown Davao.

“I want to be a teacher,” Thessa, a Grade II pupil in a public elementary school here, smiles. Her mother beams proudly. But a shadow quickly crosses her face. “I’m worried. Will she ever go to college? My husband has no work.”

A few steps away just across the street in the corner, about 70 participants to the Mindanao Education Forum earlier met inside the Grand Men Seng Hotel held Friday to ponder over a similar question: how to make sure that Thessa and thousands of other school-age children like her in Mindanao will be able to go to school, stay, and hopefully finish college.

The forum was convened by the Mindanao Coalition of Development NGO Networks (Mincode) to “provide a venue for incisive discussion and assessment among stakeholders on the status of the education sector in Mindanao.”

But the Powerpoint slides presented during the forum clicked on to portray a grim picture on the overall education situation in Mindanao, particularly if stacked up against the already dismal rates in the national level.

The odds against Thessa, for instance, to even finish high school stand at only 3 or 4 out of 10. This is based on the records of the Department of Education that show the number of Grade 1 enrollees who get to finish fourth year in 10 years.

But Thessa, who lives in Southern Mindanao (Region XI), has far better chances of surviving school compared to, say, a pupil from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) where only 1 out of 10 Grade 1 enrollees finish high school in 10 years. Region XI, where Davao City is situated, has the highest completion rate of 45 percent in Mindanao.

Her dream to become a teacher someday also stands at risk as only 20 out of 100 teachers in Mindanao who took the licensure exam in 1998 passed, the lowest figure in the country. But again, because she lives in Southern Mindanao where the passing rate is close to 30 percent, Thessa’s chance of passing is higher than those coming from other Mindanao regions. ARMM had the lowest passing rate at a dismal 5.24 percent.

A Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) report lists down a host of factors affecting Mindanao education: inputs to learning which include the child’s own capacity to learn, the subject matter, teacher competence, tools and time for learning; peace and order situation and the economy; household characteristics such as low family income and size, and low parental education levels; and education governance such as the need for effective delivery of basic education, how much is being spent and how the money is spent, and corruption.

And hardest hit are the poor and the disadvantaged children. “Progress in educating Filipino children appears to be by-passing the poor, the disadvantaged, the indigenous peoples and the Muslim children, ” points out Rene Raya, lead coordinator of the Task For Education Financing of the Education Network.

Recently, the National Statistics Office revealed that about 250,000 of the approximately one million children and youth aged 6 to 24 years in ARMM were out of school based on results of the 2002 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey. Among the children and youth who belonged to families in the bottom 40 percent income group in ARMM, 28.4 percent were out of school.

Need for Gender-Disaggregated Data

“Sometimes, it depends upon the mother,” reflects Cristy as she watches over Thessa’s homework while attending to a customer buying pomelo. She believes that the mother plays a key role in instilling the value of education among her children.

Thessa is lucky that aside from being an only child, her mother, a graduate of a vocational course, constantly reminds her about finishing school. “Do not be like me and your father.”

Being a girl, Thessa is more likely to finish secondary education than a boy her age, according to the Mindanao Commission on Women citing various studies. A higher drop out rate was noted among boys in high school which are attributed to higher costs of secondary education, and possibly society’s demand for teenage boys to earn a living. “Boys,” states an Asian Development Bank study, “are pulled out of school to join the labor market but pushed the girls to stay in school longer in the absence of jobs for the latter.”

But the gender parity index of Gross Enrolment Ratio indicates that there were more eligible girls than boys to enter the elementary level. This index refers to the “total enrolment of females and males in a given level of education as a percentage of the population that, according to national regulations, should be enrolled at this level.” The GPI for Net Enrolment Ratio also known as participation rate, on the other hand, showed more boys actually enrolled in the elementary level.

The MCW paper also suggests that “cultural bias implicitly promoted through education has contributed to social divisions among the peoples of Mindanao.” It also calls for “an educational system tailor-fit to the multicultural needs of Mindanao to strengthen social cohesion.”

Not Entirely New

The overall picture of the country’s education situation is not entirely new. Raya, who reported on “Trends and Gaps in Financing Education Sector,” begins a narrative about an old man who recalled hearing the same things 30 years ago. “Matanda na ako, ganito pa rin ngayon (I’m old now, but things are basically the same as before).” The audience, who mostly came from the DepEd and non-government organizations from all over Mindanao, laughed.

“We should not fall into the trap of (just seeing) the big picture,” says Bro. Robert McGovern, FMS, president of the Notre Dame Business Resource Center. He suggests, for instance, a “check on government operational guidelines on education which may explain the problem ... or that may run counter to education services mandated by the Constitution.”

A closer look at the country’s education expenditure shows that only about 15 to 18 percent of the national budget is allocated for education. This means that the government spends only about P5,500 per pupil, and since 1998, the real per capita spending on education has even been declining.

For 2002 to 2015, the Philippines needs about P250 billion more just to ensure universal primary education or P18 billion per year in added resources. An additional 20 percent more than its current allocation should be infused to cover the deficit.

What Can Be Done

Mincode, which is composed of 11 NGO networks, bats for a priority Mindanao education reform agenda and to draw public support and awareness on the status of Mindanao education.

Forum participants also mapped out plans which include the following: increase and proper utilization of the Mindanao education budget; effective delivery of basic education; eliminate corruption; creation of a multi-sector education to lobby for the Mindanao education reform agenda.

They also urge LGUs to look for other funding resources to support the education needs of its constituents as well as members of the House of Representatives to allocate at least 10 to 20 percent of their Congressional Development Fund for education-related projects in their respective areas

Ten years from now, Thessa will hopefully be a college freshman pursuing her ambition to become a teacher. This, if only policy makers can only listen to the hopes and dreams of a seven-year old girl, studying in a dimly-lit sidewalk, amid the noise, the heat, and the blaring of jeepney music.