Manila — Senator Win Gatchalian is advocating for new measures to reduce dropout rates among enrollees in the Alternative Learning System (ALS), citing a significant decline in program completion over recent years. The push comes amid concerns that dropout rates are undermining the effectiveness of this educational alternative for out-of-school youth and adults.
According to Philippines News Agency, the completion rate for ALS has fallen sharply from 65 percent in the 2016-2017 school year to 49 percent in the 2021-2022 period. This decline represents a drop from 454,550 out of 698,356 learners to 328,195 out of 668,945 learners respectively. A 2021 study by the United Nations Children's Fund highlighted lack of financial support and the necessity to work as the primary reasons learners leave the ALS program.
"We need to strengthen guidance and counseling for ALS learners to help and encourage them to stay in the program. We also need to provide career progression for ALS learners so they can know where they will go, what type of skills can we impart, and what type of jobs they can go into after taking ALS," stated Gatchalian. The senator, who is the principal author and sponsor of the Alternative Learning System Act (Republic Act No. 11510), also emphasized the need for the Accreditation and Equivalency (A and E) Assessment as a crucial tool to measure and certify the competencies of program completers.
Despite a previous average completion rate of 63 percent from the 2016-2017 to 2018-2019 school years, only 33 percent of those who completed the program managed to pass the A and E Assessment. Additionally, estimates from Gatchalian's office and data from the Philippine Statistics Authority's Labor Force Survey indicate that up to 27.3 million Filipinos aged 15 and above who did not complete basic education were not enrolled in ALS for the 2022-2023 school year. The enrollment that year stood at 640,448, equivalent to only a 2 percent participation rate.