An alarming number of out-of-school youth (OSY) is continuously growing because of the impact caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Senators have since then raised their concern towards the matter and directly asked the Department of Education (DepEd) to instantly improve polices using lessons learned experienced from the implementation of blended/distance learning since June last year.
If left unchecked or immediately not addressed, the increase in the number of OSY will become a serious issue, warns Sen. Sonny Angara, who chairs the Senate committee on youth.
We understand that the sharp drop in enrollment for the current school year was due to the restrictions on face-to-face education. We hope to see these figures improve once our schools start to open up again, albeit gradually,
Angara said.
He added expressing his worries that many of the children who were not able to enroll last year may end up missing even more time out of school or, worse, drop out completely for one reason or another.
Based on DepEd data, close to four million students were not able to enroll for the current school year.
A 2017 Philippine Statistics Authority data, showed nine percent or 3.53 million of the estimated 39.2 Filipinos aged 6 to 24 years old were considered OSYs. From that number, 83.1 percent consisted of individuals 16 to 24 years old, 11.2 percent were 12 to 15 years old, and 5.7 percent were six to 11 years old.
The most common reasons why OSYs ends up not attending school, according to PSA data, were high cost of education, marriage or family matters, financial concerns or lack of personal interest in studying.
Sen. Angara is currently pushing for the establishment of Magna Carta of the OSYs proposed in his Senate Bill 1090 to help address the issue.
Increasing number of student dropouts worries senators
Reviewed by Issues PH
on
February 09, 2021
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Reviewed by Issues PH
on
February 09, 2021
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