Report - Social Watch Philippines

Table 1. Basic Education and Literacy Indicators, Men and Women (Selected Years)
Year
Literacy Rates of 15-24
years old
Total Net Enrolment
Ratio in Primary
Education
girls’ access to and participation in the basic to higher
levels of education 4 exhibited positive gains in terms
of participation rates and cohort survival rates, according
to the Philippines Fourth Progress Report on the
MDGs. From a large gender disparity in 1997 favoring
boys, when males’ participation rate stood at 98 percent
and females at 92.1 percent, the gap in participation
rates closed in 1999 and the proportion of girls vis-à-vis
boys steadily increased in succeeding years. Girls also
showed better cohort survival rates in elementary school
from 1996-2008 (see Table 1).
In secondary and tertiary education, young women
maintained consistently positive participation rates.
With better cohort survival rates and completion rates
in the elementary grades, female students in high school
exceeded the participation rates of males at 63.53 percent
as against 53.65 percent. Consistent with these
trends, females scored higher in terms of simple and
functional literacy rates.
Early in the 90’s, more men were enrolling in college,
but this changed from 1994 onwards, especially
in the fi elds of teacher education, commerce/business,
medicine and health. The government recognizes that
although women in the tertiary level, led participation
rates from 1994 – 2008, they entered conventionally,
in courses still strongly indicative of gender tracking.
More men enrolled in law and jurisprudence, religion
and theology, information technology, architectural
and town planning, and engineering. Replicating socialization
patterns, more women went into education
% of pupils starting
Grade 1 who reach last
grade of Primary
Primary Completion
Rate
Men Women Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls
1999 89.9 90.0 71.1 79.8 85.0 90.1
2000 94.5 95.7
2001 89.7 91.0 68.8 78.5 96.8 106.3
2002 89.8 92.0 67.6 77.3 91.4 98.6
2003 93.6 96.6 90.7 92.4 66.3 77.4 91.9 98.8
2004 90.4 92.5 65.9 75.4 90.9 97.2
2005 90.2 92.4 68.6 78.4 90.4 97.7
2006 89.2 91.4 88.5 95.6
2007 89.8 91.9 89.6 95.1
2008 93.8 95.7 91.1 93.2
Source: Combined data from http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Data.aspx?cr=608 (Last updated: 23 Jun 2010)
and teacher training, humanities, social and behavioral
science, business administration, mathematics, nursing,
home economics, service trades, mass communication
and documentation.
A closer look at the overall direction and at regional
information, however, reveals a more worrying picture
than what the national averages portray. Elementary
school participation rates of both males and females
fell from 2001 to 2006 in a majority of the regions to
below the national average—the whole Visayas region
and four regions in Mindanao. Only the National
Capital Region, the Ilocos Region, Central Luzon,
CALABARZON, Bicol Region, and the ARMM registered
SY 2005-2006 participation rates in elementary
education equal to or above the national average. Net
enrolment in the secondary level exhibited the sharpest
decline in net enrollment from 2000-2001 and has
hardly recovered since.
The general trend of decline in elementary participation
and completion rates makes the possibility of
achieving Universal Primary Education by 2015 dim.
Economic issues always fi gure as the primary reason
for children not enrolling and eventually dropping out.
Basic education is free only as far as paying tuition fees
are concerned; other costs such as transportation, food,
materials for school projects, “donations” for various
reasons, etc., hinder impoverished parents and children
from enjoying this fundamental right.
The state continues to breach the constitutional
provision that the highest budgetary priority be assigned
Winning the Numbers, Losing the War: The Other MDG Report 2010 55