Sixteen percent of the estimated 39 million Filipinos 6 to 24 years old are Out-of-School-Youth (OSY), according to the results of the 2010 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS). In this report, OSY refers to family members 6 to 17 years old who are not attending formal school and family members 18 to 24 years old who are currently out of school, not gainfully employed and have not finished college or post-secondary course.

Among the regions, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao has the highest percentage of OSYs of about 24 percent of the population aged 6 to 24 years, followed by Davao (19%) and Caraga and Central Luzon, with 18 percent each. Cordillera Administrative Region has the lowest percentage of OSYs (10%). The proportion of OSYs among females is higher than among males (17% and 14%, respectively) (Table 1). One-fifth of the total OSYs belong to the bottom 10 percent per capita income stratum (Table 2).

The reason for not attending varies by age and sex of OSY. Among OSYs who are 6 to 12 years old, lack of personal interest and too young to go to school are two leading reasons, for both males and females. Lack of personal interest is also the commonly cited reason for OSYs who are 13 to 17 years of age, followed by high cost of education. For OSYs aged 18 to 24, looking for work was also cited as a main reason among males, and marriage, among females (Table 3).

The APIS is a nationwide survey conducted during the years when the Family Income and Expenditures Survey (FIES) is not carried out. For a full sample survey, the number of sample is around 50,000 households. This 2010 APIS round, only half of the sample size was used.

Of the 21,023 eligible sample households for the 2010 APIS, 20,103 were successfully interviewed. This translated to a response rate of 95.6 percent at the national level. Households which were not interviewed either refused to be interviewed or were not available or were away during the enumeration period.

(Sgd.) CARMELITA N. ERICTA

Administrator