In 2022, four out of five (81.4%) children aged 5 to 24 years were enrolled or attending school¹. Across regions, the top three with the highest proportion of school attendance were: MIMAROPA Region (85.1%); Eastern Visayas (84.8%); and Bicol Region (84.4%). On the contrary, Zamboanga Peninsula (76.7%), Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) (78.1%), and Central Luzon (79.5%) had the lowest proportion of school attendance. (Table 1 and Figure 1)

Among children aged 5 to 24 years, 40.8 percent were attending school and males, while 40.5 percent were attending school and females. By age group, students aged 6 to 9 years posted the highest percentage of currently attending school at 26.8 percent of children aged 5 to 24 years who were attending school. This was followed by those students aged 10 to 12 years and aged 17 to 19 years at 18.4 percent and 15.1 percent of the population aged 5 to 24 years who were attending school, respectively. (Table 1)

Nationwide, about 18.6 percent of children aged 5 to 24 years were not attending school. Of those who were not attending school, the top reasons were the following: finished schooling or finished post-secondary/college (21.1%), employment (19.7%), lack of personal interest (12.6%), marriage (10.7%), and high cost of education/financial problem (9.9%). (Tables 1 and 2, and Figure 2)

By sex disaggregation, a higher proportion of males than females were not attending school due to employment (25.9%) and lack of personal interest (17.9%). On the other hand, a higher proportion of females than males were not attending school due to the reason that they have already finished schooling (28.9%) or due to marriage (17.0%).

Across regions, CALABARZON had the highest proportion of children not attending school due to employment at 28.3 percent of the total number of children 5 to 24 years old who were not attending school. BARMM had the highest proportions of children not attending school due to high cost of education/financial concern (23.2%) and family matters (16.2%). MIMAROPA Region had the highest proportion of not attending school due to illness/disability (7.2%). Marriage was highest in Cagayan Valley (18.7%). In addition, Cordillera Administrative Region had the highest proportions of not attending school due to finished schooling (28.8%) and lack of personal interest (24.1%).
 

CLAIRE DENNIS S. MAPA, PhD
Undersecretary
National Statistician and Civil Registrar General

_{¹The Department of Education (DepEd) announced the school opening for SY 2022-2023 to start on 22 August 2022. Thus, those persons whose school year started in August were considered currently attending school for SY 2022-2023, while for schools who will open later than August 2022 if they had an intention to enroll or pursue their studies during the interview, they were considered as currently attending school.}