Ana Marie Pamintuan
Philippine Star

There is another casualty of the combination of soaring food and fuel prices, joblessness and a booming population: education.

A study undertaken by the National Statistical Coordination Board showed that enrollment in primary school dropped to 83 percent last year from 90 percent five years earlier. The figure is worse for high school, with only 59 percent of eligible children actually enrolling.

The figures can only get worse as families put children’s education near the bottom of their spending priorities. Topping the priorities are food and other basic necessities such as water and electricity.

These days, with rice prices jumping by about 30 percent in just two months, food alone can eat up nearly the entire household budget.

One morning recently I passed by a long, snaking line of people waiting to buy subsidized rice from an outlet of the National Food Authority. Two hours later, the line was still long under the scorching noonday sun.

The household budget has to be exceptionally tight for parents and their children to wait that long for an allocation of two kilos of rice per person. But they can still count themselves lucky; at least they have money to buy rice at subsidized prices.

Food prices are among the reasons cited for parents’ decision to keep their children out of school. Children cannot learn on an empty stomach. A recent TV report showed that hunger and acute malnutrition are becoming serious problems among Filipino children.

Many families in rural areas also rely on the land for food and extra income. Farming is backbreaking work, and children are often needed to help even before harvest time. Since students cannot keep skipping classes to attend to small farming plots, their parents no longer bother to enroll the children.

And so as of last year, 1.207 million six-year-olds were not in Grade One, according to the Department of Education, which also estimates that up to 3.8 million children of school age have not received formal education.

The figures are just as bad for Filipinos from ages 10 to 24, with the National Statistics Office reporting that 11.6 million did not attend school in 2003. The figures are expected to be worse in the next NSO study this year.

Education is free up to high school, but there are many other expenses incurred in sending a child to school. Parents must have money for the child’s transportation, uniforms, school supplies and miscellaneous fees. Some parents do not have money even for water and soap to provide their children regular baths. How can they afford uniforms?

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Education is pushed further down in the order of priorities when someone in the household has a chronic or degenerative illness that needs regular medication.

For millions of Filipinos, a blocked artery or early-stage cancer is a sure death sentence. Since they can’t afford to fight such illnesses, they simply wait for their bodies to give up.

But they know that some illnesses such as tuberculosis are not fatal and may infect the rest of the household, so they spend precious money on medication. They also buy medicine for afflictions such as asthma or menstrual cramps that could keep a family member from a day’s work and minimum wage earnings.

If a child’s education will eat into the budget for a working family member’s health care, education is put on hold.

By the time the family finds some money to spare for education, a child is often too old for his class level. I know teenagers who dropped out of school in third grade and are too embarrassed to pick up where they left off.

It’s a shame because many of these teenagers and adults who dropped out of school early are eager to learn. They realize soon enough that education can open opportunities for improving their lives. But often, by the time the realization sets in, they are already too far behind in their studies.

The government can still remedy this situation by expanding adult literacy programs. Learning is a lifelong experience, especially for those who are eager to get an education.

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But even those who want to learn may hesitate to invest time, effort and hard-earned money on formal schooling. They see friends and relatives who can’t find decent jobs after graduation. Even the demand for health professionals is slackening these days, which is bad news for those who had joined the scramble for diplomas in nursing, care-giving and related courses. There are too many workers for too few jobs.

Education is an investment, and for many impoverished families, there is no certainty of a decent return on this type of investment in the Philippines.

I know parents who agonize even over the P100 per semester that some schools charge for kindergarten, which is not free or compulsory in the public school system.

The parents realize that more fortunate children in private schools get a good head start by attending kiddie school, prep and kindergarten before first grade. But sending a toddler to kindergarten can be even more expensive than high school education.

The quality of our human resources has pulled down our competitiveness in the global economy.

It has also allowed our venal politicians to perpetuate a culture of patronage and dependence on dole-outs. Many of our populist politicians  would have no chance of remaining in power if the majority of the electorate is educated and able to make informed choices.

This could be one of the reasons why there is no urgency to improve the quality of public education. It guarantees that the number of children being deprived of education will continue to grow.