School dropouts in the Philippines: causes, changes and statistics

Abstract

School dropout is a major problem as it has negative impacts that result in high social costs. A learner can be called a dropout when the learner fails to enroll in school despite having reached the mandatory school age. This paper aims to identify the root causes of school dropouts in the Philippines, specifically in all regions for the years 2008 and 2013. The secondary data on the proportion of population 6 to 24 years old who are not attending school from the website of the Philippine Statistics Authority were used. The data were analyzed using R version 4.2.1. This paper employed descriptive statistics, namely frequency and percentage to identify the root causes of dropping out in the Philippines when grouped according to region and year. Percentage change (increase and decrease) were explored to track changes in the causes of school dropouts. The findings indicated that the high cost of education, and student employment or when the student is seeking employment were the root causes of dropouts in the Philippines for the years 2008 and 2013, respectively. Based on the findings, it is recommended that the Philippine government, through the Department of Education, should prioritize programs that will address the root causes of the school dropouts with the goal of decreasing the dropout rate in general.