The Department of Education (DepEd) has been urged to come up with interventions that would help address the increasing number of boys, who drop out of school or obtain failing grades while they are still in school.
The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), which is considered the country’s foremost think tank and a globally recognized policy research organization, revealed in a research study that, compared to girls in basic education, “more boys drop out of school or obtain failing grades.”
In a research paper titled, “Boys Are Still Left Behind in Basic Education” PIDS noted that “about two-thirds or 65 percent of out-of-school children (OOSC) in 2017, aged 5-17 years, were composed of boys.” PIDS also revealed that “22 percent of boys between ages 12 and 15 did not reach the upper secondary level compared with girls at 12 percent.”
This, the research organization added, was “also similar in the lower secondary level (12-15 years old) wherein the OOSC rate for boys was at 8 percent and 3 percent for girls.”
Schools losing boys
PIDS Senior Research Fellow Dr. Jose Ramon Albert, PIDS Consultant Dr. Clarissa David, and PIDS Research Analyst Jana Flor Vizmanos pointed out that the poor performance of boys in school, “can often lead to low motivation to continue school” – which may eventually result in student dropout. Boys, the authors explained, “were also likely to obtain low grades, take remedial classes, and have difficulty in getting accepted to the next school level.”
The authors – in the said study – identified that one of the reasons for school dropouts was the “lack of interest” especially among boys in the primary and secondary levels. The study noted that this “lack of interest” primarily comes from their parents’ lack of desire to send them to school.
In 2018, PIDS noted that the World Bank came up with a study which speculated that “parents may calculate that the perceived gains of further education are no longer worth the opportunity cost.” However, PIDS refuted this by noting that the “opportunity costs versus perceived gains in the schooling of children are not considered competing factors even for families living in poverty.” The PIDS study also pointed out that “there is full appreciation of the importance of schooling” – regardless of how poor the families may be.
Aside from “lack of interest” – both of the learner and their parents – PIDS noted that the other causes of dropout incidence in boys were “peer influence (i.e., barkada) and vices” – particularly computer and mobile phone games which were also identified as “main causes of chronic absenteeism and lack of focus in school.”
The authors pointed out that boys were “more likely to engage in computer and mobile games, skip school with their peers, and start drinking and smoking” compared to girls.
Keeping boys in school
After identifying the reasons why boys drop out of school, the PIDS urged the DepEd to design and implement “specific learning materials and tools appropriate to a certain curriculum to accommodate diverse manners of learning.”
The authors noted that DepEd should allow the teachers to exercise “flexibility in designing interventions specific to addressing barriers” that can affect the learning of boys. Likewise, they suggested the “use of activity-based learning using manipulatives, tools, and experiments to illustrate lessons, to keep boys interested and motivated.”
DepEd was also urged to “diversify the education workforce in order to strike a balance between women and men teachers, which could result in long-term positive impact on boys.” The authors pointed out that increasing the number of male teachers with whom boys can “identify with more directly” and “share their problems comfortably with” may have “more beneficial effects, especially for those who lack male role models at home because of the absence of the father.”
Meanwhile, the PIDS also proposed the granting of “incentives to schools and teachers who can develop effective learning interventions for boys” stressing the need to enhanced coordination with local government units (LGUs) through the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the local school boards. These, the authors added, would help “reduce school absenteeism and prevent boys, particularly older ages, getting waylaid by peers and vices, including computer games.”
The authors also encouraged DepEd to work with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to “study the possibility of increasing the conditional cash transfer allowances for boys, especially at a later age.”
