Out-of-School Children: Changing Landscape of School Attendance and Barriers to Completion

This paper aims to: (1) obtain estimates of out-of-school children (OOSC), both in magnitude and rates; (2) profile OOSC and their families, as well as provide a discussion of the reasons why these children are out of school, and what makes children at risk of dropping out of school; and (3) discuss and recommend policies to reduce OOSC in the country.

Study finds, among others, that large reforms and expansion of the DepED’s budget, coupled with the government’s conditional cash transfer program, have made significant changes in the OOSC picture and brought down the magnitude of OOSC especially among the poor. In addition, the full support placed on programs designed to reduce school dropout cases, particularly the Alternative Learning System, in the last administration has brought under-educated Filipinos back to school. The paper also provides concrete recommendations for addressing both demand- and supply-side bottlenecks to schooling.