ISSUES OF GRADE REPETITION AND DROPOUT IN SCHOOLS
MICHAEL R. DATU
The latest edition of the Global Education Digest was very informative and relevant particularly in the Philippines. It revealed the urgent need to address the high numbers of school children repeating grades and leaving school before completing primary or lower secondary education. According to the new data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), there are about 32.2 million primary pupils that were held back a grade in 2010, and 31.2 million dropped out of school and may never return.”
The UIS findings also revealed that the Philippines are among the top five countries in East Asia and the Pacific for dropout rates in primary education. The data also indicated that the highest dropout in our country occurred in the first grade. It only showed that most of our school dropouts leave school often without being able to read or write.
It also showed that most grade repetition and drop out occurred among girls and those school children who lived in arm conflict areas of our country. It is very difficult for some families to support their children going to elementary and much more to high school.
In general, poor children living in rural areas are more likely than urban children from better-off households to repeat grades and leave school before completing elementary and attaining basic foundation skills, like literacy and numer acy.
The challenges to complete primary school fall under the different sectors in our government, policy makers, deped officials, teachers and parents. Recommendations can be made to helped decrease grade repetitions and dropouts in schools. Our main objectives are to keep our children in school and reduce grade repetion. Early interventions should be utilized to be effective and it should be precise, timely and relevant. We should ensure that grade one pupils make it through grade two by providing struggling pupils remedial lessons. Focus on ensuring a transition fom elementary to high school for female pupils. Finally, government programs such as 4P’s and Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) should be properly utilized and monitored to reduce dropouts among low income families in our country.
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The author is Head Teacher I at San Rafael Elementary School