Fewer kids enter, stay in Western Visayas schools

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

ILOILO CITY — Fewer learners in Western Visayas are entering, staying in, and finishing basic education, with enrollment declining and several access indicators slipping over the past three school years.

The Department of Education Region 6 (DepEd-6) reported on Tuesday, Aug. 18, that key performance indicators point to fewer learners entering and completing basic education in the region.

“Access is the first promise we must keep […] The data tell us that there is an alarming concern in terms of access,” DepEd-6 Regional Director Cristito Eco said in his Regional Basic Education Report.

Eco said enrollment from school years 2022-2023 to 2024-2025 declined significantly in Key Stages 2, 3, and 4, which cover Grades 4 to 6, junior high school, and senior high school, respectively.

Key Stage 1, which covers Kindergarten to Grade 3, was the only level that did not register the same decline.

The region’s gross enrollment rate also decreased steadily across all education levels during the three-year period, although senior high school continued to post the highest rate.

Gross enrollment rate measures total enrollment regardless of age against the population of official school age, while net enrollment rate counts only learners who are of the official age for a given level.

Net enrollment rates in elementary and junior high school likewise declined steadily, while senior high school recorded a slight increase.

Transition rates, which measure the percentage of learners who move from one education level to the next, also dipped across levels in school year 2023-2024.

Although the rates remained relatively consistent afterward, they continued to fall below the target, according to Eco.

Retention and promotion rates in both elementary and secondary education declined in 2023-2024 before recovering in 2024-2025, while cohort survival rates followed a similar pattern.

Despite the recovery, cohort survival remained below its 2022-2023 level, indicating continuing challenges in keeping learners in school through their expected educational cycle.

Secondary education also posted a notable increase in its repetition rate in 2024-2025.

“These higher repetition rates may adversely affect gross enrollment rate and net enrollment rate, posing challenges to long-term learner persistence,” Eco said.

Retention rate refers to the percentage of learners who continue studying in the succeeding school year.

Promotion means a learner moves to the next grade level or year level after the school year.

Cohort survival, on the other hand, refers to a learner eventually reaching the final grade of the level.

The secondary completion rate partially recovered in 2024-2025, but the three-year average showed that only eight out of 10 learners completed secondary education.

School leaver rates, which measure the proportion of learners who stop going to school, improved in the school year 2024-2025 after a notable increase in 2023-2024, particularly in secondary education.

Elementary education continued to record lower school leaver rates than secondary education.

Graduation rates remained relatively high in secondary education after a partial recovery in 2024-2025, while elementary graduation performance remained generally stable despite a temporary decline in 2023-2024.

Eco said the report should not be viewed as a celebration of accomplishments but as a call to action on what learners still need from all sectors.

“It is a call to action on what learners still need from all of us; education is a shared responsibility of government, families, communities, business, academia, civil society, development partners, and the entire Western Visayas village,” he said.

The challenge, he said, is to move from activity to impact, compliance to performance, isolated efforts to collective action, and good intentions to measurable learning.

“That is the direction we commit to fulfill for Western Visayas from 2026 to 2029,” Eco added.

The regional findings track a national pattern. The Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II), which submitted its final report to Congress in January 2026, found that only 30.5 percent of learners are proficient by Grade 3 and that proficiency falls to 0.40 percent by Grade 12.That report, titled “Turning Point: A Decade of Necessary Reforms,” launched the National Education and Workforce Development Plan for 2026 to 2035, a ten-year roadmap intended to coordinate reforms across DepEd, the Commission on Higher Education, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.Western Visayas opened School Year 2026-2027 on June 8 under a three-term academic calendar issued through DepEd Order No. 009, series of 2026, which ties the calendar to the department’s Academic Recovery for Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program for pandemic-related learning losses.

Eco delivered the basic education report at the first Regional Assembly of Education Leaders (RAEL).

The inaugural RAEL, which runs until Aug. 20 in Iloilo City, brought together education leaders from across the region to strengthen leadership, governance, and innovation in basic education.

The assembly is designed as a platform for education leaders to engage with policymakers, governance experts, and practitioners on issues shaping the region’s basic education sector.