The net enrollment rate (NER) is one of the most important and cited
education indicators. It is the leading education indicator for the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the World Declaration on
Education for All (EFA), to which the Philippines is committed. The NER
is also used to monitor education policies and programs of the government as well as
to identify areas that need intervention. Because of the declining trend of NER since
2001, the Philippines is not expected to attain the common goal of the government,
MDGs, and EFA—to achieve universal primary education by 2015. Moreover, the
government has to redirect its plans on basic education.
However, based on the results of the Annual Poverty Indicator Survey (APIS) that the
National Statistics Office (NSO) conducts, the decline of the NER is not as significant
as that of the estimates of the Department of Education (DepEd) in Figure 1. Also, a
closer look at the provincial NERs (Figure 2) showed that there are many data points
that are more than 100% as well as some very low ones. This situation suggests possible
errors in deriving the subnational NERs, which could probably cascade up to the
national level NER.