Thursday, June 08, 2006
Drop in enrolment due to sexual, psycho ‘abuse’
By Ernie N. Olson Jr.
WHILE poverty is seen as one of the major factors that caused the decline of enrolment in all levels of education nationwide, in the past several years, sexual and psychological "abuse or maltreatment" was also reported to have contributed largely to the decrease of students in secondary schools in the Cordilleras.
According to Dr. Delfin Tamamao, Department of Education (DepEd) regional director in the Cordillera, although they still have to come up with official records to support this finding, "maltreatment is a contributory factor in the decrease of enrolment in secondary schools."
"Although this is not the main reason, sexual and psychological abuse, even within the family, has contributed to this," he added.
"Poverty is also another factor because many students, especially the males, choose to work instead of going to school to either augment their respective families’ income or to become their sole breadwinner," Tamamao said.
He said even if peace and order used to be another factor in the decrease of enrolment in all levels of education sometime ago, this was not the case in recent years, as seen in the cases of students in Abra and Kalinga. "More or less, enrolment in these provinces have since remained stable in the past few years," he said.
According to official records of DepEd-Cordilleras, which were disseminated to reporters during the Kapihan media forum held at Camp John Hay’s El Rancho Bar and Restaurant Wednesday, a total of 209,520 elementary school pupils and 87,354 high school students were enrolled in various public educational institutions within the region for school year 2005-2006.
In the elementary level, 30,073 were enrolled in Abra, 17,678 in Apayao, 28,886 in Baguio City, 48,598 in Benguet, 29,279 in Ifugao, 31,761 in Kalinga and 23,245 in Mountain Province.
In the secondary level, 11,481 were also enrolled in Abra, 5,418 in Apayao, 19,927 in Baguio City, 18,534 in Benguet, 9,435 in Ifugao, 11,581 in Kalinga and 10,978 in Mt. Province.
This school year, based on initial enrolment statistics, 211,616 elementary school pupils and another 93,468 high school students have already enrolled in Cordillera public schools.
However, Tamamao said the numbers are expected to decrease in the coming months, due to several key factors mentioned earlier.
(June 8, 2006 issue)
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