WHEN BOYS ARE PUSHED-PULLED OUT OF SCHOOL: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM THE PHILIPPINESLeodinito Y. CañeteCebu Normal University

“If we educate a boy, we educate one person. If we educate a girl, we educate a family – and a whole nation.”African proverb quoted by James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, 1995

The emerging school drop-out patterns of boys growing up in poverty is a growing area of concern not only in the Philippines but in many parts of the world.(Tyre 2008; Martino and Pallota-Chiarolli 2003; Pollack 1998)

To investigate the phenomenon of boys

* being outperformed by girls in school

* having less participation in formal education

What is a dropout?DepEd NSO Pupils who

failed to finish the school year as well as those who finished the school year but did not enrol in the succeeding year

Respondents who were not attending school at the time of the Annual Poverty Income Survey

LITERATURE REVIEW

More boys than girls attend elementary schools but more girls attend and complete high school (Cañete 2011)

Employment activities were common among older male dropouts, while domestic duties were true of most females in rural areas (Nava 2009)

Pupils drop out because of lack of personal interest with demand- and supply-side issues (Orbeta 2010)

Children of poor families find it more rational to work rather than to stay in school (Maligalig and Albert 2008)

Percent of children not attending school decreases as HH income increases (Tabunda and Albert 2002 cited in Maligalig and Albert 2008)

More girls finish high school and end up in college because boys have to work, as more families find it increasingly harder to scrape a living (Chua 2005a)

There are now more illiterate boys than girls. Marriages are often frayed by a lot of arguments just because wives earn more than their husbands (Chua 2005b)

Changing marriage patterns result from improvements in women's education and income (Isen and Stevenson 2010; Brüderl and Diekmann 1997)

Non-marriage has been more prevalent among women with more education and best-educated women find fewer potential partners.

Any problem of non-marriage is concentrated in two groups with dim wedding prospects: men with no education and women with a lot, which tends to promote cross-country brides.

There will be an answer, let it be.

Let it be, let it be.Yeah, there will be an

answer,let it be.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

Percent of male population, 6-24 years old, who were not attending school during SY 2008-2009 by reason and by income stratum, Philippines (total 6.3 million - 2.8 million lowest 30% income stratum and 3.5 million from the highest 70% income stratum)

Poor Non-poor0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40 schools are very farno school w/in brgyno regular transpohigh cost of educillness/disabilityhousekeepingmarriageemploymentlack of interestcan't cope w/ s.w.finished school-ingprob w/ s.r.prob with b.c.

Reasons given by male population 6-24 years old for not attending school

Top three reasons given by poor males

•lack of personal interest•high costs of education •employment or looking for work.

Top three reasons given by non-poor males

•employment or looking for work•lack of personal interest•high cost of education

Top reason given by most poor and non-poor males

•lack of personal interest

ReasonIncome Stratum

(Lowest 30% and Highest 70%)Location

(Administrative regions in the Philippines)

DF SS MS F-Value p-Value DF SS MS F-value p-Value

1 Schools are very far 1 20.340 20.340 16.560 0.001 16.000 24.250 1.520 1.230 0.340

2 No school within the barangay 1 1.930 1.930 14.460 0.002 16.000 2.135 0.133 1.000 0.500

3 No regular transportation 1 0.650 0.650 9.760 0.007 16.000 2.001 0.1250 1.880 0.109

4 High cost of education 1 272.800 272.800 15.390 0.001 16.000 745.700 46.600 2.630 0.031

5 Illness/disability 1 1.700 1.700 0.780 0.389 16.000 58.640 3.660 1.690 0.152

6 Housekeeping 1 0.650 0.650 3.860 0.067 16.000 7.711 0.482 2.860 0.021

7 Marriage 1 3.560 3.560 2.290 0.150 16.000 63.380 3.960 2.550 0.035

8 Employment/looking for work 1 1050.600 1050.600 45.890 0.000 16.000 2179.900 136.200 5.950 0.000

9 Lack of personal interest 1 931.900 931.900 64.090 0.000 16.000 1863.800 116.500 8.010 0.000

10 Cannot cope with school work 1 2.226 2.226 4.590 0.048 16.000 20.605 1.288 2.660 0.030

11 Finished schooling 1 744.490 744.490 145.000 0.000 16.000 94.020 5.880 1.140 0.395

12 Problem with school record 1 0.360 0.3603 5.170 0.037 16.000 4.4547 0.278 4.000 0.004

13 Problem with birth certificate 1 0.596 0.596 4.330 0.054 16.000 2.491 0.156 1.130 0.403

14 Too young to go to school 1 15.289 15.289 41.040 0.000 16.000 145.952 9.122 24.490 0.000

15 Others 1 0.095 0.095 0.260 0.615 16.000 6.951 0.434 1.200 0.359

Two-Way ANOVA:Reasons for not attending school versus

income stratum and location

Reasons for not attending school with no significant correlation to income strata (lowest 30% and highest 70%)

(5) illness/disability

(6) housekeeping

(7) marriage

(15) unspecified others

(1) schools are very far

(3) no regular transportation

(5) illness/disability

(11) finished schooling

(15) unspecified others.

Reasons for not attending school with no significant correlation to location (l7 administrative regions)

CONCLUSION

In the Philippines,

lack of personal interest is clearly the

predominant reason

between poor and non-poor males that

independently or

simultaneously with other factors push-

pull them from school.

Poor rather than non-poor boys

have a preponderance for not attending school in terms of

magnitude and

coverage of their

reasons.

Clearly, boys not attending school will impact on

society.

Empirical evidence gathered point to different societal

manifestations of

shifting gender parity

conditions that may impact on

poor males.