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Although previous Philippine administrations have enacted human capital development laws that reflect principles similar to those adopted by more successful countries, they have generally failed to provide adequate funding to ensure their effective implementation.
This is according to the World Bank’s “Human Capital Index 2020” report that gave Philippians a score of 0.52, which “means that children born in the country today will not reach nearly half their potential. “.
Released on Thursday, the report presents health and education data from 174 countries that cover about 98 percent of the world’s population.
“The Human Capital Index ranges from 0 to 1. The index is measured in terms of the productivity of the next generation of workers relative to the full education and full health benchmark,” said the global financial institution based in Washington.
“An economy in which a child born today can expect to achieve a complete education and full health will score 1 on the index,” he added.
“The importance that governments gave to mass education in the country in the 1970s led to an expansion in school enrollment, with gross primary enrollment rates at around 100 percent and rates close to 90 percent at the secondary level. in 2017, “the World Bank said. .
“However, although access has increased, quality is still a problem, as [Filipino] students with grades lower than [those] in almost all the other countries participating in the last round of [the] PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) in 2018 ”, he added.
According to the report, the Philippines only spends about 4.4 percent of its gross domestic product on its health programs and 3.5 percent on education programs, compared to an average of 6.5 percent and 4, 5 percent, respectively, for an average country with the same income level. .
“This has resulted in overcrowded and understaffed clinics and schools, poorly paid providers, inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of administrative and technical capacity, especially in local schools and health facilities. The absence of adequate funding has also hampered efforts to improve governance, ”the World Bank said.
“Widespread fraud in the distribution of textbooks, theft of funds or supplies and ghost workers (workers who are paid but do not perform their work) in municipal health facilities are reflected in the results of the country” added.
On the PISA 2018 test, about 81 percent of students achieved a proficiency level in reading below the minimum, while an equally high percentage of them performed below the minimum proficiency level in mathematics.
“Lack of adequate funding, resulting in understaffed facilities, poorly paid providers, and overcrowded clinics and schools, has particularly hit the country’s low-income households and more remote regions, which now lag behind the rest. of the country in terms of access to services, ”the report said.
Policies that cut across sectors and lines of authority can be especially beneficial for countries like the Philippines that have limited technical and administrative resources and capacity, according to the World Bank.
“Over the past 40 years, successive governments in the Philippines have adopted policies that engaged more than one sector, promoted integrated approaches, and encouraged greater stakeholder engagement in service delivery,” he said.
“In addition, many policies reflect the fact that factors beyond the social sectors affect human capital development, such as clean air, drinking water supply and the provision of sanitation services,” he added.
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