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1. The National Statistics Office in coordination with this Department has gathered data that there are more than 1.8 million out-of-school age children in the country (Inclosure No. 1.) Included among these children could be the street children, the disabled, the malnourished, children in ethnic communities and those in difficult circumstances.

2. In recognition of the necessity and urgency of making these children enjoy the right to education which they deserve, the following guidelines are issued:

2.1  All schools shall undertake the project “Child Find”. Data on the names of school-age children who are out of school, their addresses and reasons why they are not in school should be gathered.

2.2  School divisions shall plan and implement educational programs responsive to the diverse needs of these children. These programs shall consider the formal system and other alternative delivery services in basic education.

2.3  Programs and projects which have been undertaken by the Bureau of Elementary Education, Bureau of Secondary Education, the regional and the division offices and other offices and NGOs on a pilot basis and proven to be effective shall be utilized. Some of these programs and projects are found in Inclosure No. 2.

2.4  GOs and NGOs known to have programs for school-age children shall be tapped for technical assistance in the training of teachers and other services needed.

2.5  Needs for teachers, classrooms and textbooks relevant to the provision of educational services to the out-of-school age children shall be given priority.

3. Regional offices shall monitor and submit to the Secretary the actions taken by the division offices for the implementation of this program.

4. Immediate dissemination of and compliance with this Order is desired.

Adopted: 2 May 1997

(SGD.) RICARDO T. GLORIA
Secretary

Region		Out-of-school children
	6-9 years old		10-14 years old
Philippines
Both Sexes	1,263,000		600,000
Male	698,000		387,000
Female	566,000		213,000
NCR
Both Sexes	61,000		33,000
Male	37,000		18,000
Female	24,000		15,000
CAR
Both Sexes	19,000		5,000
Male	9,000		4,000
Female	10,000		1,000
Region I — Ilocos
Both Sexes	63,000		18,000
Male	39,000		13,000
Female	24,000		5,000
Region II — Cagayan
Both Sexes	55,000		26,000
Male	32,000		20,000
Female	23,000		6,000
Region III — Central Luzon
Both Sexes	91,000		50,000
Male	49,000		31,000
Female	42,000		19,000
Region IV — Southern Tagalog
Both Sexes	141,000		62,000
Male	82,000		36,000
Female	59,000		26,000
Region V — Bicol
Both Sexes	95,000		44,000
Male	49,000		26,000
Female	46,000		18,000
Region VI — Western Visayas
Both Sexes	130,000		45,000
Male	75,000		32,000
Female	55,000		13,000
Region VII — Central Visayas
Both Sexes	133,000		68,000
Male	69,000		43,000
Female	64,000		24,000
Region VIII — Eastern Visayas
Both Sexes	90,000		49,000
Male	47,000		34,000
Female	43,000		15,000
Region IX — Western Mindanao
Both Sexes	85,000		51,000
Male	51,000		33,000
Female	35,000		18,000
Region X — Northern Mindanao
Both Sexes	79,000		49,000
Male	37,000		38,000
Female	42,000		12,000
Region XI — Southern Mindanao
Both Sexes	85,000		58,000
Male	46,000		34,000
Female	39,000		24,000
Region XII — Central Mindanao
Both Sexes	56,000		21,000
Male	38,000		15,000
Female	19,000		6,000
ARMM
Both Sexes	80,000		20,000
Male	38,000		10,000
Female	42,000		10,000

Programs/Projects Addressing the Working Children, the Disabled, the Malnourished Children of Ethnic Communities and Children in Difficult Circumstances

1.         DROPOUT REDUCTION PROGRAM

This project is composed of two related projects that are supportive of each other, namely:

1.1       No Drops Learning System and

1.2       Dropout Intervention Program (Direct Service Delivery)

1.1    NO DROPS LEARNING SYSTEM aims to come up with a learning system that will enable every child who enrolls in the elementary school to stay with the school system until he becomes functionally literate and develops his thinking skills and ability to learn and develops his thinking skills and ability to learn how to learn. This is a joint project between DECS-SEAMED-INNOTECH which addresses to quality basic education for school -going age children through a multipronged and holistic approach on the problem of educational wastage stemming primarily from the drop-out problem.

B.      THE DROP-OUT INTERVENTION PROGRAM (DIP) involves the implementation of interventions such as the provision of multi-level materials (MLMs), parent-teacher partnership, school feeding and provision of school supplies for selected pupil beneficiaries. It is conceived by the Curriculum Development Division of the Bureau of Elementary Education. Fifty four (54) expansion schools from nine regions namely Regions I, II, III, VII, IX, X, XI, CAR and NCR were selected as beneficiaries of the program for Phase I. For Phase II which is the expansion program, this started during the school year 1995-1996 of which 69 new sets of schools from 6 priority SRA divisions of Regions IV, V, CAR, VI, VIII and ARMM were selected as the additional beneficiaries.

2.         TULOY SA DON BOSCO STREETCHILDREN

Design to eradicate illiteracy in NCR, the project caters to illiterate out-of-school youth, the street children by providing basic literacy skills integrated with values education. With the St. John Bosco, a Roman Catholic religious order taking the lead role, various agencies with similar program are tapped for possible integration of activities to bring better results. Tuloy’s clientele are more or less 100 street children. For the past three years of operation, its clientele have been attending local community schools. A total of 77 street children are presently enrolled at the elementary, secondary and tertiary levels. A core of volunteer tutors from the academic and business communities in Makati provide school remedial help.

3.         PROJECT IMPACT

The acronym stands for Instructional Management by Parents, Community and Teachers. The project was established in the Philippines and in Indonesia in cooperation with the Ministers of Education of the member countries funded by the International Research Center (IDRC), Canada. The general objective of the project was to develop an effective and economical delivery system for mass primary education. The project concentrated on primary education preferably in rural areas where almost 70% of the population live in the region.

4.         PROJECT EASE

EASE means Effective and Affordable Secondary Education. It seeks to provide an alternative learning system to high school students who cannot come to school regularly or must leave school temporarily because of circumstances beyond their control. It also aims to serve advances or very bright students who find the formal school system too slow or boring, hence, would rather study on their own, at their own pace. This is an on-going project spearheaded by the Bureau of Secondary Education and its project location and or clientele are 16 regions, with 1 school per region.

5.         MOBILE MULTIGRADE SCHOOL

This project of the Cordillera Administrative Region aims to retrieve dropouts and increase participation and cohort survival rates by helping children who cannot go to school because of the distance from home to school.

6.         COMMUNITY-BASED SPED SERVICES (CBSPED)

This is an outreach project being undertaken by the Special Education Division of the Bureau of Elementary Education in coordination with other GOs and NGOs working for people with disabilities. It utilizes parents, parateachers and volunteers who will be trained in providing educational services to blind, deaf and mentally retarded children and youth ages 8-18 years old who cannot avail of existing SPED services.

7.         MULTIGRADE TEACHING PROGRAM

This project aims to support the DECS policy to improve access to and quality elementary education through the organization of multigrade classes to complete incomplete schools. It is being implemented through such components as provision of multigrade instructional package; training of teachers, school heads and supervisors; and monitoring and evaluation of program implementation. The multigrade classes are clustered either 2 grades, 3 grades, 4 grades, 5 grades or 6 grades.

8.         ARMY LITERACY PATROL SYSTEM

This project is concretized by the national programs and projects on literacy and continuing education. The goals are to eradicate illiteracy in NPA infested areas of Regions II, VI and IX and to improve the quality of life of individuals and families most particularly the tribal groups by providing knowledge, attitudes, values and skills that will enable them to become productive and socially responsible citizens. This project is undertaken through the joint efforts of the DECS Non Formal Education at the local level and the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The NFE personnel/trainors train the army men who in turn will qualify them to be literacy facilitators (LF). A system of monitoring and evaluation is installed by the AFP to ensure achievement of the Region’s goal of eradicating illiteracy by the year 2000.

9.         IN-SCHOOL OFF-SCHOOL APPROACH (IS-OSA)

This is a research study launched on the development of a delivery system for mass primary education known as PROJECT IMPACT. One approach instituted at eight sites in the country to the mass delivery system for primary education is popularly known as the IN-SCHOOL OFF-SCHOOL approach (IS-OSA). This approach attempts to develop a management system wherein a single master teacher can be made responsible for the education of 80 or more students. This was formally started last July 1, 1974. Funding came from different sources which are the Asia Foundation and the School Board of Madellin, Cebu. IS-OSA is addressed to the persistent problem of how to bring down the cost and at the same time bring up the standard of primary education.

10.       INNOVATIVE EDUCATIONAL SERVICES FOR CHILDREN IN SITUATION OF ARMED CONFLICT

This is a project of Region XI which is pursued by the Center for Innovative Education (CINE) in coordination with DECS. It is a comprehensive plan or action for redirecting education, making it an integral endeavor of the whole community.

11.       SURVIVAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS DEVELOPMENT FOR DISABLED CHILDREN, YOUTH AND ADULTS

DSWD and DECS Region III are the proponents of this community-based project which will provide training to disabled children, youth and adults to develop their communication skills right in their own homes and communities. Participants of this program have undergone training in Braille or in Sign Language to facilitate their social integration in their communities.

12.       REACHING OUT TO THE OUT-OF-SCHOOL-YOUTH, UNEMPLOYED ADULTS, WOMEN AND DISABLED PERSONS THROUGH CONTINUING EDUCATION

This is a multicomponent project designed to give access to basic education programs for the out-of-school youth, unemployed adults, women and the disabled population in Region VI. It calls for an “adopt a barangay” program wherein private and public elementary schools, colleges and even universities/organizations will choose a barangay that will be provided with basic literacy and livelihood/occupation skills. The development of desirable Filipino values shall be integrated in the nonformal education services as part of their community extension services. Aside from this adoption scheme, there will be a community-based training especially designed for women in non-traditional occupations, namely: wood carving, domestic electricity, repair and maintenance of household appliances, and fabrication of farm and household tools.

13.       INTEGRATED CENTER-BASED CONTINUING EDUCATION FOR SOCIALLY DISADVANTAGED YOUTH

DECS Region VIII initiated this project to address the needs of disadvantaged children and youth below 18 years specifically the street children, the neglected, abandoned and abused children, victims of armed conflict and the drug dependents. A grand alliance of government agencies and nongovernment organizations will provide a wide range of services which include residential and home care, formal education, livelihood/vocational skills training, special education, psychological/psychiatric services, medical/health services and advocacy and social mobilization.

14.       TAWI-TAWI PILOT PROJECT FOR INTEGRATED SOCIAL SERVICES AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME FOR THE NEVER-REACHED FLOATING SETTLEMENTS AND AGRARIAN REFORM BENEFICIARIES

This is a special project of ARMM which involves the distribution of basic social services to the deprived, unserved and never-reached families of seaweed farmers in floating villages and islets and those living in the islands of the province of Tawi-Tawi. Various agencies have extended formal and non-formal education services through the itinerant teachers who were recruited and trained for this purpose. Livelihood skills and the teaching of the Arabic language are being provided by concerned agencies.

For the agrarian reform beneficiaries, a scheme involving the establishment, development and support of a 50-hectare food productive farm in a Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) area will be implemented. Essential infrastructure facilities like the water system, multipurpose center, mini warehouse, cassava mills and other post harvest facilities will be provided. Livelihood skills, training and nonformal education activities will also be conducted for the inland people.