TEEN PREGNANCIES SEEN PART OF PHL’S POOR PISA RESULTS
TO curb the rising number of student dropouts due to teenage pregnancy, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian on Wednesday called on the Department of Education (Deped) to revisit its comprehensive sexuality education program.
“If they are not aware of sex education, not aware of their bodies, not aware of the perils if they get pregnant early, they would drop out. The problem with that is they will never go back to school. The way forward is to prevent,” said Gatchalian, who is presiding over the Committee on Basic Education hearings on the analysis of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 Results for the Philippines.
Gatchalian lamented that the bright future of female students getting pregnant is taken away from them as they opt to drop out and become full-time mothers.
Meanwhile, Sen. Nancy Binay asked the Deped if it has mechanisms for monitoring cases of teenage pregnancy where the child is a victim of sexual abuse.
Binay noted that the law raising the age for determining statutory rape from 12 to below 16 years old is already implemented, and she inquired whether the department had corresponding measures to address teenage pregnancy arising from such abuse.
Deped Assistant Secretary Alma Ruby Torio admitted that the department lacks a specific mechanism for monitoring such cases but is addressing the issue by reaching out to affected learners and their parents.
Earlier, Education Secretary Sara Duterte said that the number of dropouts due to teenage pregnancy and early marriage decreased to 88.85 percent in 2022 due to the “promotion of Alternative Delivery Modes” of learning.