PHILIPPINES
Education
22% 10% 65% 1.6 million 1st
of 3–4-year-old of Grade 5 students of 15-year-old children and in 2022
children attend achieve minimum children adolescents World Risk Index
early childhood proficiency level experience bullying (5–17 years old) for most disaster-
education in reading at school are out of school prone country
©UNICEF Philippines/2021/Pau Villanueva
Storytelling by a child development
worker using Alas Singko storybook
Challenges
The Philippines has made significant progress in education Participation in early childhood education remains limited
in the past years. The country initiated a nationwide basic in the country. The preschool attendance rate for children
education reform, known as the K to 12 Program, in 2013, aged 3 and 4 is 22 per cent.1 While the Philippine government
which enacted 13 years of compulsory education from stipulates one year of kindergarten as compulsory education
kindergarten to senior high school. The number of learners for all 5-year-old children, 34 per cent of 5-year-old children
enrolled in kindergarten to senior high school increased from are not enrolled in kindergarten. 2 Moreover, 23 per cent of
about 24 million in School Year (SY) 2013–2014 to 28 million children aged 24–59 months are not developmentally on
in SY 2022–2023. In SY 2022–2023, about 640,000 out-of- track in health, learning and psychosocial well-being with
school learners studied in the Alternative Learning System the disparity disproportionately affecting boys, children
(ALS). However, the education sector still faces various from rural areas, the poorest households and 4-year-old
challenges. children. 3
1
Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS), 2019.
2
Department of Education, Key Education Statistics SY 2020–2021, 2021.
3
PSA, Philippine 2022 National Demographic and Health Survey.
1
Many children lag behind in mastering foundational skills About 1.6 million children and adolescents (5–17 years old)
such as basic literacy and numeracy. Only 10 per cent of Filipino are out of school, which represents 6 per cent of school-
students achieve the minimum reading standard and only 17 age children from kindergarten to senior high school. In
per cent for the minimum mathematical standard expected by particular, adolescents are less likely to complete secondary
the end of primary education, as defined in the United Nations education with 12 per cent of those aged 16 and 17 not
Sustainable Development Goal 4.4 The long closure of in- attending school for reasons such as employment and lack
person classes during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic of interest.8 In general, boys are more likely to drop out than
exacerbated the learning crisis. Filipino students, on average, girls – 8 per cent of boys leave senior high school, while the
lost 61 per cent of the years of schooling a child is expected figure is 5 per cent for girls.9
to have by age 18.5 The pandemic has a strong negative
effect on students in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in The Philippines is prone to natural disasters such as floods,
Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). It is estimated that by the end of typhoons, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Typhoon Rai
Grade 4, students from BARMM have barely progressed from that hit the Philippines in December 2021 affected 29,671
where they were at the end of Grade 1 after experiencing the schools in 11 regions, putting 711,360 children in need of
pandemic (see figure). education in emergency support.10
There are also challenges in socio-emotional learning.
Solution
For example, 65 per cent of 15-year-old Filipino students
experience bullying at least a few times a month. Moreover,
only 31 per cent of students aged 15 have a growth mindset,
which is the lowest percentage among the Programme To ensure opportunities for quality education and reduce
for International Student Assessment (PISA)-participating socio-economic and geographic inequalities among children
countries.6 A 2022 study also suggests that students from and adolescents, the United Nations Children’s Fund
conflict-affected areas and urban poor communities in the (UNICEF) Philippines works from early childhood education
Philippines generally have lower socio-emotional skills and to adolescent learning via policy, system strengthening and
that children who attended preschool or daycare have better modelling innovations towards realising the rights of every
socio-emotional skills compared with peers who did not child in education. BARMM is one of the geographical
have the experience.7 priority areas in UNICEF’s work.
Figure: Simulated literacy achievement trajectory with or without the COVID-19 pandemic effect
Source: Adapted from Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 on Learning: Predictive study, 2023
4
Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics, 2019.
5
Asian Development Bank, Learning and Earning Losses from COVID-19 School Closures in Developing Asia: Special topic of the
Asian Development Outlook 2021, 2021. Learning losses can be measured in terms of learning-adjusted years of schooling
(LAYS), which capture both the quantity and quality of education. LAYS are measured as the number of years of schooling a child
can expect to obtain by age 18, adjusted by a country’s average student achievement, which is measured using standardized
test scores that are harmonized across countries (Patrinos and Angrist 2018 as cited in ADB 2021).
6
PISA, 2018.
7
UNICEF, Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and SEAMEO-INNOTECH, Philippines Early Childhood Education: Kindergarten to Grade 4
longitudinal research, 2022.
8
PSA, FLEMMS, 2019.
9
DepEd data for 2020.
10
Philippines Humanitarian Country Team, Humanitarian Needs and Priorities Revision: Super typhoon Rai (Odette) Philippines, 2022.
2
Early childhood education
Evidence suggests that early childhood education has long-
term positive impacts on Filipino children’s education.11 In
this regard, UNICEF supports the capacity development
of the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD)
Council, local government units, child development workers/
teachers, and parents and caregivers in strengthening quality
and inclusive early childhood education, early identification
of disabilities and smooth transition of young children from
pre-school, kindergarten to elementary school. UNICEF
also supports the implementation of the mother tongue-
based multilingual education policy and development and
distribution of storybooks in local languages for kindergarten
to Grade 3 learners.
Foundational skills
Mitigating the learning crisis in the Philippines is an urgent
undertaking. UNICEF works to address the learning
crisis from policy development to field-level innovations.
UNICEF supports the Department of Education (DepEd) in
evidence generation on learning through a regional learning
assessment, such as the Southeast Asia Primary Learning © UNICEF Philippines/2023/Osawa
Metrics (SEA-PLM), and various research initiatives.
Moreover, UNICEF works with the DepEd regional office Learners from a multigrade school
in conducting rapid assessments for learning recovery. accessing learning content using the
UNICEF also works for the most disadvantaged children offline Learning Passport hub device
and adolescents, such as those in hard-to-reach areas, with
disabilities, from an indigenous background and from poor
households, especially through modelling digital learning
interventions, such as the Learning Passport, digital stories
and apps, to enhance their foundational skills.
Socio-emotional learning
Socio-emotional skills are equally critical to children’s
education and human development.12 UNICEF works with
DepEd to develop the assessment of socio-emotional skills
that will be tested in the SEA-PLM 2024. UNICEF also
implemented projects to integrate socio-emotional learning
in interventions for children in conflict with the law (CICL)
as well as through science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM) education to enhance the psycho-
social well-being of vulnerable children and adolescents.
UNICEF provided technical assistance to DepEd’s Disaster
Risk Reduction and Management Service in its mental
health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) response during ©AdZU SUGPAT/2019/Agustin
the pandemic through weekly webinars for students and the
provision of an MHPSS guide for school personnel as part ALS learners regularly meet in a
of learning recovery. UNICEF also supports the framework community chapel to attend their
development of Healthy Learning Institutions, one classes
component of which is mental health. In addition, it worked
with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) Bangkok in field-testing the MHPSS
11
UNICEF, SEA-PLM 2019 Policy Brief: Early childhood education, 2022; UNICEF, ACER and SEAMEO-INNOTECH, 2022.
12
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Social and Emotional Skills: Well-being, connectedness and success, 2018.
3
system-level tool that informed DepEd on its areas of Education in Emergency
strength as well as on gaps in the policy and implementation
of its mental health programme. Rapid and timely response to emergencies is critical to
ensure children’s continuous learning opportunities. UNICEF
continues to advocate for education as a lifesaving and life-
Alternative Learning System sustaining intervention; being a cluster co-lead, it ensures
holistic, equitable and well-coordinated emergency response
UNICEF supports DepEd’s ALS, which is a parallel and with government and humanitarian partners. UNICEF
equivalent K-to-12 learning pathway for out-of-school promotes a safe learning environment in emergencies through
children in special cases, youth and adults. The key UNICEF the delivery of temporary learning spaces, and supports
interventions in the ALS include the ongoing technical teaching and learning by distributing student kits, teacher
assistance on operationalizing micro-certification in the kits, school-in-a-box and storybooks as well as providing
ALS, the development of the ALS 2.0 Information and technical assistance to the government in response to various
Communications Technology Strategic Plan 2022–2026 emergency situations. UNICEF also undertook learning
and the ALS Research Agenda 2022–2026, and social and continuity support and advocacy for the safe resumption of
behavioural change strategies to increase participation in in-person classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. UNICEF
the ALS and to improve local support for the ALS delivery. supports DepEd in enhancing climate change adaptation and
UNICEF also provides model interventions to strengthen mitigation education that facilitates adolescent empowerment
skills development among disadvantaged adolescents and civic engagement through participatory and meaningful
and young people through initiatives that focus on socio- community-based climate action. This initiative is being
emotional learning, STEM education, digital learning, scaled up by improving teachers’ self-efficacy in integrating
comprehensive sexuality education and adolescent climate change education into their teaching and learning
reproductive health convergence, Learning to Earning delivery as well as co-designing and implementing climate
Pathways (LEaP!) and Youth Development Alliances. action activities with their learners.
© UNICEF Philippines/2022
Children singing the Philippine National
Anthem in Jolo, Sulu, as they safely
returned to schools in SY 2022–2023
UNICEF Philippines
United Nations Children’s Fund
14th Floor North Tower
Rockwell Business Center Sheridan
For further information, please contact: Sheridan St. corner United St.
Aki Osawa Highway Hills, Mandaluyong 1550
Education Officer (JPO) Metro Manila
aosawa@unicef.org
