The Philippine Education System Journal Review

­­­­­­­­JOURNAL REVIEW: PHILIPPINE EDUCATION
Why Are Some Filipino Children Not in School?
By: Jose Ramon G. Albert, Francis Quimba, and Andre Philippe Ramos
Published By: Policy Notes

SYNOPSIS

Filipino families and the Philippine government have always been known to give prime importance to Filipino children’s education. This is quite evident in several national development plans on the part of the government, while parents prioritize their children’s education by planning the earliest time possible to ensure that they are able to send their children to higher levels of education like college.

However, with the importance regarded in the education of the Filipino children a significant number of them are not in school and this posts the biggest question, as it goes against what appeared to have been a known claim.

The journal aims to answer the question as to why some Filipino children are not in school. Furthermore, it discusses estimates on the number of children who are not in school, by school exposure, and looks into the reported reason for non-attendance. Finally, it looks into some policy issues that arise from the results and discussions.

Generally, the following play significant effects as to why some Filipino children are not in school:

Poverty
Labor
Low level of literacy
Lack of interest
In the research, one of the methodologies done was by conducting an examination based on econometric models. This was done in order to further investigate the factors that contribute to non-participation in school and the lack of personal interest of children who does not attend school.

The logistic regression results suggest that gender issues and the education of the mother are major factors for lack of personal interest. Aside from poverty, other identified factor such as location where the child resides is interlocked with poverty. These factors further increase the likelihood of children being unable to complete their schooling.

The journal recommends that there should be considerable efforts to assist out-of-school children. Furthermore, implementation arrangements should also be done on the governmental level to carry out truancy and child labor laws more effectively.

STRENGTHS

The major key strengths of the research are numerous quantitative data to back up its claims. Each finding it has presented improves its position by being backed up by empirical data from secondary sources.

It was also able to provide sound recommendations as to how the education system on the basic level can be further improved.

WEAKNESSES

While the research provides various sources of quantitative research, the discussion in the paper lies heavily on descriptive aspect and not much rationale is provided on each claim. For example, while it might be obvious to some why boys in the secondary level have a higher likelihood of being out-of-school more than girls, the paper was not able to fully justify this on the rationale it provided.

In addition, while there is strength in basing research from quantitative data, it would have also helped strengthen their research more if they had conducted interviews or other qualitative means to obtain supporting information. This is because is directed towards a social phenomena that involves human being. In order to fully understand them, it would help to also take time to cite actual claims from first hand sources.

LESSONS LEARNED

The value of education is further emphasized through the research. It has opened certain key issues on education that needs attention as the results described by the research is quite alarming, like the decreasing interest of children to education.

In recent studies, it has been found that population may not actually be the cause of poverty. However this may remain true if the bigger portion of the population is composed of people who have purchasing power and education. If the issues posted in the primary and secondary education cannot be resolved, it may result consequences that will be harder to remedy in the long run.

EVALUATION

In a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the highest, I would rate the research a 7 for the strong evidence it has presented to support its claims on the reasons why some Filipino children are not in school. However, the research it self requires a deeper means to further strengthen its claim by expanding its research to qualitative means as well. And lastly, the research would be easy to duplicate since it used secondary data from other studies.