Elementary, high school enrolment rate increase
There has been an increase in the enrollment rate in Western Visayas for the school year 2009-2010 both in the elementary and secondary levels, according to a report on the status of the region’s performance in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Data provided by the Department of Education (DepEd) disclosed that “out of 100 children whose ages are 6-11 years old, 75 are enrolled in public elementary school” while 48 for every 100 children ages 12-26 are in public secondary school for the said period.
The figure was slightly higher when compared with the school year 2008-2009 where only 70 pupils are in elementary school and 46 for the secondary level for every 100 children.
A slight difference was noted though when compared with SY 2007-2008.
However, the DepEd data also showed that for every 100 pupils who enrolled in Grade 1 during 2007-2008 calendar, only 65 reached Grade VI and 62 only made it to the fourth year high school; only 62 pupils completed the elementary level and 58 for the secondary level.
The dropout rate among elementary pupils was at 2.43 percent or equivalent to 23,925 pupils and 6.63 percent for secondary which is equivalent to 31,781 students.
Even with the increased enrollment and lower dropout rate, Estela Paredes, chief of the Knowledge Management Division of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), cited that eight school divisions from Western Visayas are at the bottom among the 40 divisions all over the country in 2009.
The figure that was released only this year covers key performance indicators, she added.
Paredes identified poverty, health and nutrition, accessibility to education facilities and child labor especially in Negros Occidental, as factors.
The third goal of the MDGs is aimed at ensuring that by 2015 “children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary education.”*PNA
