CHILDREN MINISTRY

STATE OF PHILIPPINE BASIC EDUCATION

A recent study made by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) showed that although 99 percent of Filipino children get enrolled in grade school, only 68 percent of first-grade entrants complete the six-year course. Many drop out already as early as Grade 1 and 2. ADB also cited that the reasons for the drop-out are interconnected and multilayered as demographic, such as when a child grows up in a household with closely spaced siblings; related to income, the pupil being the child of a low-income or unemployed, landless parents; environmental, when he or she lives in an area with rising incidence of disease due to poor sanitation or unprotected water living in a mountain area or coastal community only reachable by water;  related to peace and order. The child's environs have insufficient services because of past armed conflict and culture, with the child growing up in an Indigenous community that has poor access to basic services. Another study by the World Bank cited that one specific major cause of pupil dropout is the inability of the parents to meet the "hidden cost" of education such as school supplies, uniforms, bags, shoes, and school allowances. Many pupils leave school when their parents can no longer afford to pay for these hidden costs. Thus, this is the major factor that increasing number of delinquent children.