OUT-OF-SCHOOL youths nationwide cited marriage or union as the top reason they dropped out of school, according to the 2013 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (Flemms).
Based on the Flemms, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that nearly 4 million, or 22.9 percent, of out-of-school children and youth have entered into marriage.
“Out-of-school children is defined in the Flemms as persons aged 6 to 14 years who are not attending school, while out-of-school youth as persons aged 15 to 24 years who are not attending school, have not finished any college or post-secondary course, and are not working,” the PSA said.
Between male and female students, more females are dropping out of school because of marriage.
Data showed that 36.2 percent, or around 4 out of 10, out-of-school female teenagers have dropped out of school because of marriage.
Data showed that only 1.7 percent of male students dropped out of school because of marriage.
It can be noted that more male students, 33.1 percent, however, have dropped out because of the lack of personal interest.
Among females, those who dropped out of school because of the lack of personal interest was at 10.3 percent.
Another top reason for dropping out of school is low family income. Around 19.2 percent cited insufficient family income as the reason for not attending school.
The PSA said the proportion of out-of-school children and youth whose family income was not sufficient to send a child to school was 22.7 percent and 17 percent, among males and females, respectively.
In 2013 the PSA said 1 in every 10, or about 4 million, Filipino children and youth was out of school.
Out-of-school children and youth in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) comprised 14.4 percent, which is the highest across regions.
Six regions that have a proportion of out-of-school children and youth higher than the national average at 10.6 percent were Soccsksargen, Davao, Central Luzon, Zamboanga Peninsula, Caraga and Mimaropa (ranging from 11.2 to 12.3 percent).
Further, the proportion of out-of-school children and youth was lowest in Comprehensive Agrarian Reform at 7.1 percent.
The PSA said that, in general, the proportion of persons who are out of school was higher among the youth than among children.
Excluding CAR, the proportion of out-of-school youth across regions ranged from 14.5 percent to 20.4 percent. For children, the figure ranged from 1.7 percent to 4.9 percent, except the ARMM with 10.9 percent.
The 2013 Flemms is a nationwide survey covering around 26,000 sample households. For this survey round, Region 8 was not incorporated due to Supertyphoon Yolanda.
The survey seeks to gather information on the basic and functional literacy status, educational skills qualifications of the population and exposure to mass media.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano