EDITORIAL - Education for the extremely poor

Efren Peñaflorida no longer has to push a book-laden cart to bring free basic education to the poorest of the poor in his home province of Cavite. The teacher who was declared “Hero of the Year” in 2009 by CNN now has a two-story school building donated by Universal Robina Corp. to his Dynamic Teen Co.

The school, equipped with numerous textbooks, clean toilets and an air-conditioned office, teaches English, Science, Mathematics and Values to 62 students from grades seven to nine. Peñaflorida no longer has to push around teaching materials in a wooden cart to bring education to street children and out-of-school youth, but he still relies on donations to keep his free education program going.

Peñaflorida, who grew up in the slums around the city dump of Cavite, is contributing what he can to give the extremely poor access to education. Around the country, however, there are still too many children who because of poverty are deprived of formal schooling.

Basic education is free and compulsory, and certain textbooks are provided free by the government. There are also free feeding programs in the lower grades. But parents still have to spend for a student’s transportation fare, school supplies, snacks, and other miscellaneous expenses. Even these minimal expenditures are beyond the reach of the millions of Filipinos classified as extremely poor.

Children from this sector account for the high dropout rate in grade school. They are the most vulnerable to child abuse and sexual exploitation. The dropout rate also tends to spike during harvest season, when parents need even young children to help in the farms.

Among families slightly better off than the extremely poor, it is not unusual to have only the eldest or the brightest in a large brood finish formal schooling. Once the child acquires sufficient education to land a job, he or she then helps siblings finish their education.

Peñaflorida’s pushcart program or “Kariton Klasrum” gave extremely poor children a chance to develop functional literacy at the very least. His new school will take the students beyond the basics for a better chance to escape poverty. The state can step in and set up similar programs targeting the extremely poor in other parts of the country.