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Statistically Speaking
Something You Need To Know About Sex, Education! 
by Dr. Romulo A. Virola 1
Secretary General, NSCB
During the 38th Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission held on 27 February – 2 March2, one of the agenda items was a presentation from Statistics Canada on a framework for the generation of education statistics. It aimed to rationalize the production of statistics to inform decisions in the education sector. At about the same time, the Commission on the Status of Women was meeting in nearby conference rooms. They had a panel discussion on how statistical offices had supported efforts towards evidence-based decision making to advance the cause of women. As many of us may know, under the Millennium Development Goals, Goal 2 seeks to “achieve universal primary education” while Goal 3 aims to “promote gender equality and empower women” and targets the elimination of “gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015”.
In March each year, we celebrate Women’s Month, and of course, the Lenten season has begun, so in case you had entertained inappropriate ideas, this article is not about what you think! It is about gender and education statistics! After all, haven’t you heard? The Communication Research Department of the UP College of Mass Communication says we Pinoys, are uncomfortable talking about sex and sexuality! So let’s be comfortable!
Education has to be the primary mover of the knowledge-based economies of the Third Millennium. It is therefore imperative that the Philippines recover the grounds it has been losing lately and systematically to our neighbors and our competitors! And we ask if Pinays are not being left behind.
In 2004, Statistically Speaking lamented the dismal passing percentage in the professional board examinations conducted by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) from 2000 to 2003. On the average, only 35 out of every 100 examinees would pass the exams! This has got to be a wasteful use of resources, both manpower and financial! Imagine the sacrifices that parents make just to be able to send their anak to school! And two out of three of these kids would fail the board exams! The solution of course, is not to stop sending these kids to school! Surely, reforms are needed in education! And we may be much better off if many of those schools offering so called higher education closed shop or overhauled their programs completely! CHED, DepEd, what have you got to say?
Interestingly, men fared better than women in the board examinations from 2000 to 2003! It is unfortunate that the PRC could no longer provide sex-disaggregated data on the examinees, rendering some otherwise interesting analyses no longer possible; I am confident though that we can convince our friends at the PRC that such statistics are useful and that they should strive to re-generate the gender statistics they had started in the past. In the meantime, let us revisit the available data on education statistics and professional board exam results to see if things have changed for the better.
The NSCB publication, 2006 Statistical Handwook on Women and Men in the Philippines3, shows that for Academic Year 2003-2004, women continued to be attracted to business administration and related courses4 and education and teacher training, followed by medical and allied fields and math and computer science. Men, on the other hand, preferred engineering, followed by business administration and related courses, math and computer science and education and teacher training. In total, the most popular field is still business administration and related courses. Least-favored by women are trade, craft and industrial courses, followed by religion and theology, fine and applied arts, home economics, architectural and town planning and law and jurisprudence. Men least prefer to go to trade, craft and industrial, religion and theology, architectural and town planning, fine and applied arts, home economics and law and jurisprudence! And I thought we already had too many lawyers! That fine arts is one of our least favored field, of course, reflects on the kind of TV programs we patronize!
Yes, one out of five young Pinoy boys and girls would go to commerce! The question is, is this career-orientation right? Are they the graduates needed by the globalized economies? The aged and aging population of many countries would need caregivers and nurses, fields in which Pinoys and Pinays are known to excel, maybe the redeeming factor from watching all those telenovelas! And to be a good caregiver, one need not spend four years of higher education, only to flunk in the board exams! So why do our young Pinoys and Pinays continue to flock to commerce?
The updated table on the distribution of passers in PRC Board Examinations by Sex and by Field5, Table 03-12-07-1, shows no statistically significant improvement during the period from 2004-2006 in the performance of the board examinees compared to 2000-2003! Still only 35 out of a hundred would pass the exams! The two fields with the highest average percentages of passing for 2004-2006 remain the same: medical doctors and nutritionists and dieticians. On the other hand, accountants and auditors continue to have the biggest percentage of casualties; general elementary education teaching professionals remain among the worst three, together with medical equipment operators who replaced physical therapists. Some sadder than sad news!
Comparing the period 2000-2003 and 2004-2006, the average percentage of passing in fields that do well has gone down! In fact, from three before, there are now only two fields where the passing average is better than one out of two! Por Diyos Por Santo, ano na nanyayari sa bayan natin? Sabi nga ng alta sosyedad!
General secondary education teaching professionals have joined the ranks of terrible performers: from 38.8% average passing to 28.5%! Could this be a reason why our young boys and girls no longer go to high school as we used to? The teachers know nothing much to teach them anyway?
Some compensating developments: the percentage of failure among the worst performing fields has also gone down and the percentage of passing for nursing and midwife professionals has gone very slightly up from 49.1% to 49.5%. Not really much to crow about maybe, in the light of what happened in the scandalous June exam for nurses! But in fairness, it is probably too early to see the fruits of whatever reforms have been instituted by CHED/DepEd/PRC? Let us certainly hope so! Otherwise, before it becomes really, really late, let us better listen to and use these statistics intelligently!
And if the compilation of these statistics were not to be a waste of precious resources, CHED/PRC/DepED and all decision makers involved should seriously consider doing something about schools that do not do well. Maybe, the number of students they are allowed to accept for enrolment should depend on the performance of their graduates in the board exams; and those that consistently do poorly should eventually be closed? Let us muster enough political will to do what must be done!
As the PRC has stopped sex-disaggregating these data, let me call attention to some gender statistics on education available elsewhere6. Subject to the usual limitations of internationally-generated statistics, Table 03-12-07-2 indicates the following:
Around the period 1999-2003, Pinays had the highest primary net enrolment ratio among the ASEAN countries. Pinoys however, pulled down the national average, losing to Vietnam and Cambodia, but tying Malaysia and Indonesia. Our ratios are of course, lower than those for Sweden, Denmark, Canada, Japan and the Republic of Korea, but better than the USA (!), Venezuela, India and South Africa!
For secondary net enrolment ratio, as already reported two articles ago by Statistically Speaking, we are not doing well at all! Pinays slightly do better than Pinoys, 65% to 64%, and while we rank second to Malaysia among 6 ASEAN countries with available data, our enrolment ratios are so far below those of the developed countries like Sweden, Denmark, Canada, Japan, USA and the Republic of Korea. A lot of catching up, indeed!
Right now, Pinays are relatively well-placed compared to other women of the world. We have had two women presidents – the United States does not even have one! Not yet, at least, because someone who may have been inspired by a woman classmate of her husband is aspiring to be the first! But we are losing our advantage! Therefore, the education gap between us and our competitors must not be allowed to widen any further! By all means, let us do our best to recover our past advantage!
Happy women’s month, more power to our friends at the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women and Abanse, Pinay!
Table 03-12-07-1
Distribution of Passers in PRC Board Examination by Sexa and by Field, 2002-2006
| Description | Male | Female | Total | ||||||||||||||||
| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | Average | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | Average | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | Average | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | Average | |
| 2000-2003 | 2000-2003 | 2000-2003 | 2004-2006 | ||||||||||||||||
| Physicist, Chemists and related professionals | 47.9 | 46.5 | 54.7 | 50.5 | 49.9 | 42.7 | 46.8 | 48.8 | 39 | 44.3 | 44.2 | 46.7 | 50.5 | 42.6 | 46 | 46.7 | 49 | 50.9 | 48.9 |
| Architects and related professionals | 33 | 38 | 42.3 | 39.9 | 38.3 | 25.9 | 32.9 | 35.5 | 31 | 31.3 | 31.3 | 36.6 | 40.6 | 37.3 | 36.5 | 39.7 | 44.5 | 42.7 | 42.3 |
| Engineers and related professionals | 39.7 | 42.8 | 39.4 | 39.9 | 40.5 | 34.5 | 39 | 36.9 | 37.4 | 37 | 38.7 | 42.1 | 38.9 | 39.3 | 39.8 | 38.7 | 56.9 | 41.1 | 45.6 |
| Life Science professionals | 41.6 | 55.5 | 40.7 | 26.3 | 41 | 31.3 | 48.7 | 30.2 | 24.4 | 33.7 | 37.5 | 52.7 | 36.5 | 25.4 | 38 | 27.1 | 30.8 | 32.1 | 30 |
| Health professionals (except nursing) | 42.4 | 42.7 | 42.2 | 42.3 | 42.4 | 41 | 40.4 | 42 | 41.9 | 41.3 | 41.4 | 41 | 42.1 | 42 | 41.6 | 36.5 | 50 | 46.7 | 44.4 |
| Medical Doctors | 67.9 | 65.3 | 64.5 | 58.5 | 64.1 | 63.1 | 60.6 | 62.3 | 55 | 60.3 | 65 | 62.3 | 63.2 | 56.3 | 61.7 | 51.7 | 53.8 | 54.9 | 53.5 |
| Dentists | 35.3 | 33.5 | 38.1 | 32.5 | 34.9 | 39 | 36.8 | 42.5 | 36.3 | 38.7 | 38.1 | 36.1 | 41.5 | 35.5 | 37.8 | 34.4 | 35.2 | 33 | 34.2 |
| Nutritionists and Dietitians | 57.7 | 90.9 | 58.3 | 62.2 | 67.3 | 54.9 | 56.5 | 52.8 | 48.9 | 53.3 | 55 | 57.7 | 53.2 | 50 | 54 | 48.9 | 50 | 52.2 | 50.4 |
| Physical Therapy | 27.9 | 28.1 | 26 | 28 | 27.5 | 23.5 | 22.4 | 23.5 | 25.5 | 23.7 | 24.9 | 24.2 | 24.3 | 26.3 | 24.9 | 16.8 | 34.4 | 39.9 | 30.4 |
| Nursing and Midwifery professionals | 49.1 | 51.7 | 41 | 48.7 | 47.6 | 50.3 | 52.4 | 46.4 | 48.3 | 49.4 | 50.1 | 52.3 | 45.5 | 48.4 | 49.1 | 49.9 | 52.2 | 46.3 | 49.5 |
| General Secondary Education Teaching professionals | 22.1 | 21.3 | 23.1 | 15.8 | 20.6 | 52.5 | 45.8 | 47.5 | 33 | 44.7 | 45.2 | 39.9 | 41.6 | 28.7 | 38.9 | 27.2 | 25.9 | 32.5 | 28.5 |
| General Elementary Education Teaching professionals | 57.4 | 59.2 | 60.5 | 45.5 | 55.7 | 24.3 | 25.3 | 26.5 | 20.6 | 24.2 | 28.3 | 29.5 | 31 | 24.1 | 28.2 | 27 | 27.5 | 29.3 | 27.9 |
| Accountants and Auditors | 23.4 | 23.2 | 23.3 | 23.5 | 23.4 | 17.1 | 15.8 | 17.1 | 18 | 17 | 18.8 | 17.7 | 18.7 | 19.5 | 18.7 | 20.3 | 24.6 | 24.1 | 23 |
| Medical Equipment Operators | 34.8 | 43.8 | 33.3 | 28.3 | 35.1 | 40 | 30.1 | 34 | 21.8 | 31.5 | 37.8 | 36.4 | 33.7 | 24.9 | 33.2 | 27.9 | 28.1 | 26.2 | 27.4 |
| Ship and Aircraft Controllers and Technicians | 47.2 | 55.6 | 40.7 | 62.1 | 51.4 | 66.7 | 100 | 100 | 50 | 79.2 | 47.2 | 57.9 | 44.8 | 62 | 53 | 42.4 | 45.6 | 48.5 | 45.5 |
| ALL EXAMS | 39.4 | 39.7 | 38.9 | 34.7 | 38.2 | 36.2 | 35 | 35.8 | 29.7 | 34.2 | 37.2 | 36.4 | 36.7 | 31.3 | 35.4 | 32.8 | 35.4 | 37.8 | 35.3 |
a = sex disaggregation is up to 2003 only
Table 03-12-07-2
The World's Women 2005, Progress in Statistics
| Country | Primary net enrolment ratio, 1999/2003 ( %) | Secondary net enrolment ratio, 1999/2003 (%) | ||
| Girls | Boys | Women | Men | |
| ASEAN | ||||
| Brunei Darussalam |
.. | .. | .. | .. |
| Cambodia | 91 | 96 | 19 d/ | 30 d/ |
| Indonesia | 92 | 93 | 54 | 54 |
| Lao PDR | 82 | 88 | 32 | 38 |
| Malaysia | 93 | 93 | 74 | 66 |
| Myanmar | 85 | 84 | 34 | 36 |
| Philippines | 95 | 93 | 65 | 64 |
| Singapore | .. | .. | .. | .. |
| Thailand | 84 | 87 | .. | .. |
| Viet Nam | 92 d/ | 98 d/ | .. | .. |
| Europe | ||||
| Sweden | 99 | 100 | 100 | 99 |
| Denmark | 100 | 100 | 98 | 94 |
| South America | ||||
| Venezuela | 91 | 90 | 64 | 55 |
| Others | ||||
| USA | 93 | 92 | 89 | 88 |
| Canada | 100 d/ | 100 d/ | 98 d/ | 97 d/ |
| Japan | 100 | 100 | 100 d/ | 99 d/ |
| Republic of Korea | 100 | 100 | 88 | 88 |
| India | 85 | 90 | .. | .. |
| Africa | ||||
| Algeria | 94 | 96 | 69 d/ | 65 d/ |
| South Africa | 89 | 89 | 68 d/ | 63 d/ |
.. Data not available
d/ UIS estimates
1999/2003 means that data from different countries refer to varying reference periods but fall between 1999 and 2003. The primary net enrolment ratio is the number of girls and boys of primary school age that are enrolled in primary education, expressed as a percentage of the total population in that age group. Secondary net enrolment ratio is defined similarly.
Compiled by the UN Statistics Division
Reactions and views are welcome thru email to the author at ra.virola@nscb.gov.ph.
________________
1 Secretary General of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) and Chairman of the Statistical Research and Training Center (SRTC). He holds a Ph. D. in Statistics from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, U.S.A. and has taught mathematics and statistics at the University of the Philippines. He is also a past president of the Philippine Statistical Association. The author thanks Teresita M. Almarines, Noel S. Nepomuceno, Jessamyn O. Encarnacion and Candido J. Astrologo for the assistance in the preparation of the article. He also thanks the data sources, particularly the Professional Regulation Commission and the Commission on Higher Education.
2 This writer was a panelist during the seminar on “Evolution of National Statistical Systems”, one of the Commemorative Events held on 23 February in observance of the 60th Anniversary of the UN Statistical Commission. He made a presentation entitled “ Challenges and Opportunities in the Coordination of a Decentralized Statistical System”. His participation was funded by the UN Statistics Division.
3 See Table 37, Enrolment of Women and Men by Discipline Group, AY 2003-2004 and Table 38, Distribution of Graduates by Discipline Group, AY 2002-2003. Basic data came from CHED.
4 For School Year 2005-2006, health-related programs were the most common field of study for women; engineering technology and related programs for men. The CHED data followed the Philippine Standard Classification of Education (PSCED). See NSCB Factsheet, March 8, 2007.
5 As already mentioned, the sex-disaggregation of the data has been unfortunately stopped by the PRC.
6 The World’s Women 2005, Progress in Statistics. United Nations Statistics Division.
Posted 12 March 2007.
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