Senior High School Support Program: Philippines

Abstract

Education is the government’s central strategy for achieving inclusive economic growth by investing in human capital development to reduce poverty and build national competitiveness. The government’s Philippine Development Plan, 2011– 2016 sets out broad strategies to achieve inclusive growth, including providing quality basic education. However, Philippine education faces significant challenges, particularly at the secondary level. The secondary net enrollment rate in school year 2012/13 was low. Significant disparities in access between regions, urban and rural populations, and income classes also exist. On average, the country’s 18–24-year-olds had only 8 years of schooling. The quality of education is diminished by large class sizes; a crowded basic education curriculum; insufficient teaching resources; and a lack of specialist teachers, particularly in mathematics and science.