Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara on Sunday pressed the Department of Education (DepEd) to pay more attention to the growing number of out-of-school youth (OSY) particularly during this COVID-19 pandemic.

Angara, chair of the Senate Committee on Youth, said the increase in the number of OSYs could lead to a greater negative impact on the country’s education sector later on if left unchecked.

“We understand that the sharp drop in enrollment for the current school year was due to the restrictions on face-to-face education. We hope to see these figures improve once our schools start to open up again, albeit gradually,” said Angara who has been pushing for the establishment of a Magna Carta of the OSYs as proposed in his Senate Bill No. 1090.

“What worries me is that many of the children who were not able to enroll last year could end up missing even more time out of school or worse, drop out completely for one reason or another,” Angara added.

Data from the Department of Education (DepEd) showed that close to four million students have failed to enroll for the current school year. As of Aug. 11, 2020, the agency noted that some 23 million have enrolled in both public and private schools, which is a significant reduction from the 27.7 million enrollees in 2019.

According to DepEd, the 2.75 million of the four million who did not enroll were private school students.

“The data is alarming and there is a real danger that we’ll end up with even more OSYs now because of the impact of the pandemic on family incomes and the challenges posed by blended learning on both students and their parents alike,” the senator pointed out.

Angara said Congress should expedite the passage of the measure seeking the establishment of a Magna Carta of the OSYs to strengthen the mandate of instituting policies and programs for the development of OSYs in the country and to encourage OSYs to find other possible opportunities available to them.

Once passed into law, OSYs can avail of free mandatory technical/vocational education through the Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA). They are also included in the government scholarship program under the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education, or also known as the Free College Law.

Out-of-school youths will also qualify under the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UNIFast) administered by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

Angara also said the immediate passage of the measure into law would also benefit OSYs who are victims of sexual and physical abuse, illegal recruitment, prostitution, trafficking, armed conflict, juvenile delinquents, and other persons in similar situations.

“All of these reforms are aimed at encouraging our OSYs to realize their value in society and exercise self-improvement mechanisms,” he said in his explanatory note on the bill.

“As our country moves towards the next industrial revolution, it is imperative that we leave no one—especially those with the most potential—behind,” the lawmaker stressed.