Talisay logs most number of out-of-school

CEBU, Philippines - In the Cebu's first district, Talisay City has the most number of children who do not have any access to education.

This data is based on the household assessment result conducted by the Department of Social Welfare and Development in July 2011 using the proxy means test on ages 6 to 25 years old who did not complete any grade level.

Kerwin Macopia, the information officer of the Listahanan: Talaan ng Pamilyang Nangangailangan/NHTS of the DSWD, told The FREEMAN that of the 3,033 or 7.3 percent out of the 41,634 individuals in the entire Region 7, Talisay City recorded 744.

The first district covers Talisay City, Minglanilla, City of Naga, San Fernando, Carcar City and Sibonga.

Carcar City was second in list that did not have access to education with 706 and Naga City ranked third with 595.

The municipality of Minglanilla ranked fourth with 400; San Fernando, 333; and Sibonga, 255.

In the entire Central Visayas, data showed that most of the poor individuals with no grade level completed are found in Cebu with 22,524. This is followed by Negros Oriental with 12,392; Bohol with 6,327 and Siquijor with 391.

Meanwhile, 96,937 poor individuals finished elementary, 89,995 individuals completed high school, and 1,219 individuals were able to finish their college degrees in Region 7.

Macopia said that more than half or about 58 percent of the total poor individuals ages 6 to 25 were sent to public schools and only one percent studied in private school. Nevertheless, 41 percent poor individuals are not able to attend school because of poverty.

DSWD uses PMT as a statistical model that estimates the income of households based on observable and verifiable variables such as housing conditions, household composition, access to basic services and education of household members.

Using this model, the government can predict the income of a household and compare it to the poverty threshold of the province and classify whether the household is poor or not.

DSWD shared and adopted the system as a mechanism in identifying poor households to determine beneficiaries of different social protection programs and services like the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), Sustainable Livelihood Program, and the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens. — Garry B. Lao

New features have been added to the PMT model for the second round of household assessment to minimize inclusion and exclusion error rates.

The assessment will be conducted during the second semester and will include two PMT sub-models (one for the National Capital Region and one for all other regions), community variables through the Barangay Community Characteristics as determinants of poverty status, and a second stage screener to flag possible inclusion errors or non-poor being included in the list of poor.  (FREEMAN)