No Fee, No Entry: A Case Study on the Incidence of High School Dropouts in Public Schools despite of Free Education

Abstract

The study is mainly on the assessment of the Free Public Secondary Education Act of 1988 or RA 6655 (AN ACT ESTABLISHING AND PROVIDING FOR A FREE PUBLIC SECONDARY EDUCATION AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES) as a policy of providing equal opportunity on the accessibility of public secondary schools in the Philippines. Two public secondary schools in Metro Manila and Bicol region were used as sample schools to serve as a case study with respect to the incidence of dropouts despite the free education policy. The study looked at the effectiveness on policy formation and implementation of the government in addressing the problem on high school dropouts as well as taking into account the varying conditions of the sample schools. Survey questionnaires, key informant interviews and archival research were the methods use in the study. The results of the data gathered proved that majority of the students in public schools come from the middle and lower socioeconomic class which have indicated the presence of school expenses not shouldered by the public school system. The additional cost of these school expenses propelled the incidence of dropouts due to the burden it provided families from the low socio-economic class. From this, the absence of a program answering the full cost of education in public secondary schools prove to raise the issue of ineffectiveness of RA 6655 and the discrimination on the accessibility in public schools on the basis of the ability to have the financial capacity to survive and finish high school among the middle and lower-socioeconomic class.