Youth prefers Nursing career

OZAMIZ CITY -- In the predominantly agricultural Zamboanga Peninsula, youngsters are rooting for a Nursing degree to be eligible for employment in the paramedical service industry of Western countries, a government report showed.

For the school year 2008-2009, medical and allied disciplines, primarily consisting of Nursing, have 17,378 enrollees, said the Regional Development Report (RDR) which is a publication of the Regional Development Council (RDC).

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This number represents over 22 percent of total enrolment for the same school year.

A perceived rosy career path in this profession owing to the much publicized rising demand for health workers abroad explains the significant enrolment in the course, the report noted.

Apart from medical science, the other courses belonging to the top five preferred professional paths are Trade, Craft and Industrial courses with an enrolment of 12,531 students, while Business Administration is third with 11,436. Information Technology is fourth with 8,629 and Education and Teacher Training followed with 7,379.

The Zamboanga Peninsula consists of the provinces of Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay, and the cities of Dipolog, Dapitan, Pagadian, and Isabela in Basilan.

Courses with the least enrolment in the region, meaning less than 600 students, are Law and Jurisprudence, Natural Science, Mass Communication and Documentation, Architecture, Mathematics and Service Trades.

In all, 77,662 students enrolled in various fields of study throughout the region's 62 higher education institutions during the said academic year. This is a slight decline from the 78,041 level in school year 2007-2008.

Some 14,506 graduates in the region entered the job market in 2008, more than half of whom are from Zamboanga City were most of the colleges and universities are located.

The RDR also showed a hike in enrolment between the current and previous academic years in both the public elementary and secondary schools throughout the region.

This is largely brought about by expanding access to educational service with the increase in the number of public schools in both levels, the report said.

A total of 554,702 pupils were enrolled in elementary while in the secondary level, student population reached 232,135.

Zamboanga City's kids are mostly enrolled in private schools for their elementary education, accounting for half of the region's student population, the RDR noted.

Zamboanga del Norte had the most number of elementary pupils catered to by public schools at 27 percent of total.

The number of secondary schools in the region declined by 11, from 425 to 414, largely accounted for by privately operated ones.

Zamboanga del Sur had the most number of public schools with 651 in the elementary level and 100 in secondary, in all employing a total of 23,095 teachers.

In the region, teacher-student ratio is within the standard 1:40 but not in Pagadian and Zamboanga cities which have learner-populations way above the ceiling, while Isabela City is only half-way the maximum level.

Dipolog City had the highest dropout rate of 7.16 percent among the areas in the region.