State of education in Normin: Improving or declining?

JUNE of every year invariably highlights the continuing efforts of the government towards quality improvements on education. While both state and civil society organizations have incessantly exerted significant efforts to address multifaceted problems that confront the educations system, results have fallen short of the mark. Because we fully believe that education is an engine of growth, we cannot avoid asking this question – “Where do we stand?”

            According to the 2008 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) conducted by the National Statistics Office, eight percent of the estimated 3.7 million population 6 years old and over in 2008 in Northern Mindanao had no formal education. This is somewhat high despite the government’s commitment to provide basic education to all Filipinos.

            The largest proportion of person aged 6 years and older in the region were elementary graders. About three out of 10 persons in that age group had attended elementary school but did not complete the elementary level. Those who had graduated from elementary, but did not proceed to the secondary level comprised 13 percent.

            About 18.6 percent reached high school but failed to complete it, whereas 14.9 percent had finished high school level. Likewise, 16.5 percent either had reached but did not complete college level (8.2 %) or had actually finished college or any higher level of education (8.3 %). By comparison, the female populations have higher percentage (10.1%) than the male population (6.6 %) for completing college or higher level of education.

            The 2008 FLEMMS results also show that of the 1.8 million populations aged 6-24 in the region, 34 percent or 624 thousand were not attending school. It might be paradoxical, but the survey results revealed that the foremost reason for not attending school was attributed to lack of personal interest which yielded 27.4 percent, despite the fact that the 1987 Constitution provides for free basic education.

            We cannot discount the fact that literacy level is directly related to economic development. From an economic perspective, literacy and schooling have been shown to significantly affect individual income. Empirical evidences show that formal education is highly instrumental and even necessary in improving the production capacity of a nation. Thus, illiteracy will undoubtedly limit the full development of individuals and their participation in society, and also restricts their access to the benefits of development.

            Looking further at the FLEMMS result, nine out of 10 persons in Northern Mindanao were basically literate. Basic or simple literacy is the ability of a person to read and write with understanding a simple message in language or dialect.

            Of the estimated 3.2 million 10 years old and over in Northern Mindanao, around 94 percent were basically literate. However, the region’s basic literacy rate was lower compared to the national figure of 96 percent.

            The basic literacy rate in 2008 was slightly higher than the 2003 rate of 92 percent. The basic literacy rate among females was 95.3 percent as compared to 92.6 percent among males.

            On the other hand, around 2.6 million or 85.9 percent of the estimated 3.1 million persons 10 to 64 years old in Northern Mindanao were functionally literate. In 2003, functional literacy rate was lower at 83.7 percent. A functionally literate person is one who can read, write and compute or one who can read, write, compute and comprehend. Persons who graduated from high school or completed a higher level of education are considered functionally literate.

            The functional literacy rate among females was higher than among males (88.4 percent vs. 83.5 percent).

            As expected, functional literacy rate of the population increases with an increasing level of education. Nine out 10 persons who have reached high school level but did not complete it were functionally literate. By comparison, eight out of 10 elementary graduates were functionally literate while around six in 10 persons with some elementary education were functionally literate. Only around four percent among those with no formal education were functionally literate.

            Survey results also show that seven out of 10 persons aged 10 to 64 years who are poor were functionally literate compared to nine out of 10 among the non-poor.

            In the 2008 FLEMMS, ownership of household amenities and conveniences are used as a substitute for income in order to classify the households into either poor or non-poor.

            Data on functional literacy among the poor and non-poor populations in each of the regions shows that the functional literacy rate of the poor was lower compared to the non-poor.

            The aforementioned findings may no longer sound new to many, but these are the realities that we have to face after knowing where we stand.

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