School out-of-school
For students who may drop out, taking education out of the school may bring them back in. Going to school, to us and our kids, means waking up early in the morning, donning a uniform, taking a quick breakfast, waiting for the school “service”, and staying inside the school six or more hours a day from Monday to Friday. But out of almost 20 million children enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools today, roughly 2 million children drop out and fail to continue school, even if public education in the Philippines is free. Our public schools are struggling. Outside the school, children of poor families are worst off. Other than school homework, they also have to work. Children like Angelo, 15, have to earn a living. He wakes up at 3 a.m. to cook bread at a nearby bakeshop. He barely has time for rest and thus often misses classes or arrives late in school. When the bakeshop closed down, he almost dropped out of school because he needed to find work. At the San Francisco High School in Quezon City, his teachers enrolled him in the Department of Education’s Project EASE (Effective and Affordable Secondary Education). Project EASE is for students who cannot attend class regularly due to personal or financial woes. Students are given “take home” learning modules and advised to attend school once or twice a week for their “face-to-face” sessions with a properly-trained teacher. UNICEF supports alternative programs like Project EASE.
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Children First Newsletter (Q4 2009 Issue) [PDF] (PDF documents require Acrobat Reader to view.) |
