Filipino students are dropping out of college

Did you know that many of our Filipino youth are dropping out of college and instead opting to earn a living right away for their families?

It’s even worse in Mindanao, with higher education attrition rates reaching as high as 93.4 percent recorded in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

This is as alarming as it can get, and it’s among the disturbing findings of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II), a national commission tasked with evaluating the performance of the Philippine education sector.

I’ve always believed that education is a step toward building a better future for oneself and one’s country. Education opens doors and opportunities, and each and every Filipino must have access to it.

The right education can help lift families out of poverty; we’ve seen success stories of some of the country’s tycoons who were products of state universities or were given scholarships to private schools.

Education can spell the difference between surviving and thriving. And yet, it’s not just that. It’s about experiencing the joys of learning, which are magical, cathartic and beautiful.

Sadly, many of today’s youth won’t get a chance at that because poverty is forcing them out of college. Many of them have to be breadwinners early in life to send their young siblings to school because their parents’ earnings aren’t enough.

It is a cultural and economic problem.

Says EDCOM II:

“While higher education participation rate in the country is high at 34.89 percent, this remains lower than the ASEAN average of 41.10 percent. This also varies significantly across regions, with BARMM (18.7 percent), Bicol (24.6 percent) and Central Luzon (25.1 percent) having much lower rates.

“Studies find that the top deterrents to pursuing higher education today are employment/looking for work (44.17 percent), lack of personal interest (24.94 percent) and financial limitations (20.98 percent).”

Likewise, the attrition rates are equally disturbing.

“Higher education attrition rates are alarmingly high: at 39 percent nationally but reaching 93.4 percent in BARMM, followed by Region VII (60.7 percent), Region IX (59.5 percent) and CAR (54.9 percent).”

What to do then?

EDCOM II underscores the need for CHED to closely monitor and understand the factors contributing to severe dropouts and to initiate programs to address attrition.

Free higher education in state universities and colleges and local universities and colleges has improved participation, although I personally believe that government interventions must be targeted instead of a free-for-all setup where rich kids end up crowding out the poorest of the poor in some state universities.

DSWD data show at least 683,822 college-eligible students from Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program families could benefit from the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES).

However, reductions in TES – to P10,000 from P60,000 – may push the poorest students out of college, affect student completion rates and limit program choices.

EDCOM II warns that this may force the poorest students to forego higher education. Further, it would only realistically allow them to choose from five courses on average, most of which are already oversubscribed. These include Elementary Education, Technology and Livelihood Education, Criminology, Industrial Technology and Technical Education.

Thus, EDCOM II recommends restoring the original subsidy of P60,000 for TES grantees to support successful completion.

It also recommends providing additional incentives for those pursuing government-identified priority programs.

Teacher education

Another problematic area, as pointed out by EDCOM II, is the inadequate education that teachers receive.

Did you know that 62 percent of high school teachers are teaching subjects outside their college major?

“This misalignment between pre-service training and school-level needs undermines the quality of instructional expertise in the basic education system,” according to the report.

Not surprisingly, the mismatch is more pronounced in the sciences.

“The problem is particularly pronounced in the sciences, with a 98 percent mismatch in the physical sciences and an 80 percent mismatch in the biological sciences, highlighting a critical gap in subject-specific expertise.”

Furthermore, 13 percent and 16 percent of science teachers, respectively, teach science outside their specialization.

The teacher education curriculum requires only a minimum of six units each for field studies and practice teaching, which is among the shortest practice teaching requirements in the world.

I’m not sure when or how we got into this situation.

But one thing is certain – we need to act fast to arrest this decline.

The Department of Education must revisit teacher quality and training.

Teachers’ salaries

It is also time to raise the salary of teachers and create a system where there is room for career advancement.

“It takes teachers 15 years to move from Teacher 1 (Salary Grade 11 at P27,000) to Teacher 3 (Salary Grade 13 at P31,320),” EDCOM II said.

As it is now, teachers move to administrative roles for higher pay, further reducing the presence of experienced educators in classrooms.

A great teacher can spell the difference between success and failure in life. The least we can do for our children is to ensure that they get the best teachers.

From teachers to classroom shortages to rising incidence of college dropouts and many other problems in between, there is no doubt that our crisis in education is a ticking time bomb.

This crisis is a testament to what happens when taxpayers’ money meant for education is corrupted with impunity.

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Email: http://[email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.