Some 4.6 million high school age students are forced to drop out every year due to the inadequate number of secondary schools in the country.
ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio revealed the numbers as he urged the government to pay attention to the lack of public high schools in the country. Tinio adds that 4.6 million children aged 12 to 15 is a significant number that should be in school. They dropped out because there are no high schools for them to go to. According to Interaksyon.com, there is only one public high school for every five elementary schools.
Tinio also estimated that there were only 7,268 public high schools in the country in 2011 while there were 38,351 public elementary schools. This means that while 91 percent of school-age children are enrolled in elementary school, only 62 percent are enrolled in high school.
