MANILA, Philippines ? The Department of Education (DepEd) will be issuing a permanent ID number to all elementary and high students to monitor the nationwide participation rate in these levels.
In a forum with businessmen Wednesday, March 28, Education Secretary Armin Luistro said that they plan to issue ?unique learner reference numbers? to all students in elementary and high school. This will cover public and private schools.
Each reference number will serve as a permanent ID number which the student will use until he or she finishes high school.
Luistro explained that this will help DepEd track the overall participation rate of students in the country.
Based on indicators presented by the education department, participation rate increased in elementary from 89.43% in 2009 to 89.89% in 2010, and decreased in high school from 61.26% in 2010 to 59.86% in 2011.
However, these figures do not include students who transferred to another school or to an informal learning program offered by Deped.
?While these figures are rather validated, I felt not very happy with the figures because we could not really pinpoint in a per student level where they actually are,? Luistro said.
Tracking them
With each student having his own ?unique learner reference number,? the department can now track which school a student goes to each year. Luistro said that these numbers will help include all students as DepEd measures the participation rate.
?[With this number,] it?s more valid to track where a student actually go. I think it?s a better tracker for our participation rate,? Luistro said.
Luistro said that Deped should be able to work on this student number system by next year.
Start with kindergarten
But before monitoring the participation rate in elementary and high school, Deped said that they will first study kindergarten attendance.
DepEd implemented the initial stage of its K to 12 program in 2011, where all children aged 5 were required to attend kindergarten. Starting June 2012, kindergarten education was made a prerequisite for admission to Grade 1.
Although participation rate in kinder spiked at 92% in 2011, DepEd is still worried about the 8% gap. This means that children covered by the 8% rate will not be able to attend Grade 1 when classes open in June.
Hence, Deped will strictly implement summer classes for children who missed kindergarten last school year. ?This is one of the most important element to ensure that children go to grade 1,? Luistro said.
The education secretary added that they are currently working with all barangay officials to locate children who need to attend the kindergarten summer class.
Funding
With all these initiatives, the education department wishes to sustain all these by having a higher budget.
The department got P238.8-B budget for 2012, which amounts to 2.3% of the total gross domestic product (GDP). This allocation is higher compared to 2011?s P207-B budget, or 2.1% of GDP.
Luistro narrated that the education budget once reached its peak in 1999 (3.2% of GDP), and he wished to have it back at that track. ?If we achieve that 3.2% again, we can do so much for the education sector,? he said.
Luistro recommended tapping the support of local government units, particularly the special education fund provided to them. ?That is something that can be studied carefully,? he said. ? Rappler.com
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