Reaching the Unreached: Meeting of Southeast Asian Countries to Meet the EFA Goals by 2015 2-4 Sept. 2008 Bangkok, Thailand Highlights of the EFA Mid-Decade Assessment Leotes Lugo Helin, UNESCO Bangkok

UNREACHED GROUPS constitute the last percentages of the population who have either been historically and culturally excluded, or have been pushed to difficult circumstances due to recent economic and political trends. Their participation is critical if the 2015 EFA goals are to be met. (Insular SSR) WHERE are the unreached? WHAT do we know about them? INSULAR The countries in the sub-region recognized the following as major marginalized and unreached groups: (a) street children and working children; (b) religious, linguistic and ethnic minorities as well as indigenous peoples; (c) persons/children with disabilities or with special needs; (d) children of very poor families; (e) populations in remote areas; and (f ) children in more disadvantaged areas (i.e., places affected by armed conflict). “Unreached” groups are those who occupy the lowest range on indicators of education participation (e.g., enrolment rate) and performance (e.g., completion rate, level of education). Their average scores are significantly lower than the average for the nation as a whole, say below the bottom quartile, on the standard indicators of learning achievement. Therefore, the “unreached” have the greatest distance to reach the EFA Goals and Targets.   “Underserved” refers to the groups’ relative lack of educational opportunities and access to educational services, materials and facilities. For whatever reasons -- geographical, financial, political, linguistic, legal, socio-cultural, etc. -- the underserved are those who have the least access to the distributed educational resources, as compared to the national average, as measured by such indicators as budgetary allocation, number of schools, qualified teachers, textbooks, etc. relative to the school-age population.

MDA Sub-Regional Report Highlights There is improvement in national aggregates, but wide geographical variations in EFA progress within countries remain Programmes are in place (e.g., free primary education, expanding education infrastructure, etc.) but marginalised and disadvantaged groups continue to face obstacles Data still missing on who are being left behind. Countries do not have specific data on who are out of school, who are not learning in school and why. TWO Sub-Regional Reports: Insular Southeast Asia covering the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia Mekong covering Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam Drafts of both reports were validated by country representatives at the Jomtien Conference in Feb. Final drafts of both reports are expected to be submitted to UNESCO Bangkok by mid-March for publication. All countries in the Mekong Sub-Region are experiencing declining birth rates. Changing demographic patterns have educational implications. The disadvantaged population can grow more rapidly than the population at large.

Learners from remote and rural communities Table 5: Urban-Rural Population Distribution, Mekong Country % of Population in Rural Areas Cambodia 84% Lao PDR 73% Myanmar 71% Thailand Viet Nam 76% Includes those who live in remote and mountainous areas. Some communities in these areas are difficult to reach in the rainy season, and others can be reached only during the rainy season. There are still areas which the primary school system does not penetrate. INDONESIA: Significant provincial variations in primary NER remain due to geographical factors, especially districts that have scattered, remote or island populations PHILIPPINES: Rural areas had the lowest completion rate for primary education of 56% in 2005 mainly due to the high number of incomplete schools in the rural areas (more than 7,000 schools) Source: national censuses consolidated in the Mekong SSR Includes those who live in remote and mountainous areas. Some communities in these areas are difficult to reach in the rainy season, and others can be reached only during the rainy season. There are still areas which the primary school system does not penetrate.

Learners from remote and rural communities PHILIPPINES PHILIPPINES: Rural areas had the lowest completion rate for primary education of 56% in 2005 mainly due to the high number of incomplete schools in the rural areas (more than 7,000 schools) Table shows that 40% of those living in rural areas do not complete primary education! VIETNAM: The Mekong River Delta recorded lowest survival rate with 68.52%, i.e. 14.77% lower than the national average. This reflects the challenges faced by a complex geographical region.

Ethnolinguistic minorities / indigenous groups LAO PDR: testing of functional literacy shows non-Lao ethnic groups literacy rates were 20-25 percentage points lower than their 32 ethnic Lao counterparts. The lowest functional literacy rates were among women in some ethnic groups MALAYSIA: 140,000 of the Orang Asli can be found living in or near the forests. Around 81% live below the poverty line and are disadvantaged in terms of schooling. PHILIPPINES: Children of indigenous people have lower educational attainment, lower enrolment rates, higher repetition rates, and higher school drop-out rate VIET NAM: Teacher language used in school is not the mother tongue of children (matrix) INDIGENOUS groups are also often among the poorest MEKONG: Common to all countries in the Mekong Sub-Region is their multi-ethnic nature. Ethnicity is complex and related to language, livelihood, culture, religion, and geographic location. According to Education Network11 (2007), the indigenous peoples represent one of the significant groups in the population that are most likely disadvantaged in terms of access to schools and basic services. This is largely attributed to their geographic location as they live in remote, isolated and upland communities in regions and provinces that have higher poverty incidence, lower performance in education, and affected by armed conflict. Children of indigenous people have lower educational attainment, lower enrolment rates, higher repetition rates, and higher school drop-out rate, as schools are usually located in barangay centres and are not easily accessible to them. Teachers who come from the lowland usually spend only three days in a week to teach in these schools. Moreover, the mainstream curriculum does not integrate and link the education modules to the values and cultures of the community. The indigenous peoples of the Philippines are constantly confronted with problems brought about by illegal logging, mining and armed conflicts. VIET NAM: The proportion of ethnic minority children enrolling in ECCE has been increasing in the last 5 years. In school-year 2002-2003, there were only 12.88%; however this figure was 13.75% in school-year 2005-2006 PRIMARY: Percentage of ethnic minority students increased during the last years and is now at 18.40% VIET NAM: In the Northwest, 82% of lower secondary students are from ethnic minority groups, around 44% of whom are girls (matrix)

Girls and women, especially from rural, ethnic minorities LAO PDR: Training of more than 400 female teachers from disadvantaged ethnic groups through the Basic Education (Girls) Project (BEGP) in Lao greatly improved the Net Enrolment Rate, particularly for girls in remote ethnic communities. Barriers: distance of schools, no road access, incomplete schools, early marriage, need to assist in domestic work, etc. VIET NAM: In the Northwest, 82% of lower secondary students are from ethnic minority groups, around 44% of whom are girls Barriers: lack of day-board schools in rural, mountainous, ethnic areas (matrix) GENDER EQUALITY: cross-cutting issue: A study of Cambodian textbooks found that curricular content at primary and secondary levels did not include gender equality concepts, and in general there was a lack of understanding of how to teach and address gender issues among school staff, of gender representation in texts, of gender equity in school management, and of equal participation in the classroom (Velasco, 2004). Gender parity trends across the three countries widely vary. In Indonesia, the GPI in GIR, NIR, GER and NER in primary education favour males. There is however, a general movement towards parity. This pattern is more apparent at the secondary level where parity in GER and NER was almost achieved in 2005. For Malaysia, gender parity has been achieved in primary level GER and NER and there is almost parity in GIR. In the Philippines, girls are at a disadvantage in primary GIR while there is almost parity in GER at primary level. For the rest of the indicators in primary education and all indicators for the secondary level, GPI favours girls. The Philippines recorded the biggest gap in boys and girls performance in secondary education that continued to widen from 2000 to 2005 (Table 16).

Underperforming boys, boys at risk of dropping out, male dropouts MALAYSIA: While the gender parity index for primary in 2005 was 1.01, boys account for 65% of the out of school children of primary and secondary school- age cohort. “Cummulative deficiency in learning for boys” PHILIPPINES: At the secondary level, the disparity against boys in GER and NER continues to widen. Boys tend to engage in child labour… Inability the teachers and schools to make the learning environment interesting and relevant to their specific needs, especially the adolescents. INDONESIA: young boys taught fishing skills in fishing communities end up missing school.

Children from migrant families, refugees, stateless children In MEKONG, the three major stateless populations or illegal residents are disadvantaged ethnic groups (e.g., some hill tribes, not legally recognized groups, insurgents), refugees (e.g., Karen refugees in Thailand, Cambodian refugees in Viet Nam), and economic migrants (e.g. children of migrants from Myanmar in Thailand). Thailand in 2004 registered almost 1.3M adult migrants from Myanmar, Lao PDR, and Cambodia, and their 93,000 children under 15. But only 13,500 children under 15 from the three countries were attending Thai schools (IOM, 2005:43). For legal reasons have limited rights and access to educational services. These include some categories of migrants, persons who lack identification documents, stateless persons, refugees, and internally displaced persons. Sometimes such persons are classified as “illegal immigrants”, which can block access to schooling and other education services. It is not uncommon that children born into remote ethnic group communities, where their families have lived for many generations, are not registered at birth. This can then block their access to schooling and other social services. The Thai government passed a Cabinet Resolution mandating that schools accept all children regardless of their legal status.

Learners with disabilities/special needs MALAYSIA: difficulty in making provisions for children with special needs due to lack of information on their number, the kinds of disabling conditions that affect them, their location and the barriers they experience to full participation in ECCE. VIET NAM: About 1 million children with disabilities, accounting for 1.18% of total population with about 700,000 primary school-age children (2005 survey) LAO PDR: no data, no policy guidelines and budget for these groups, project implementation but not programme level, no job opportunities after schooling (matrix) Indonesian government to ensure equitable access for special needs groups, enrolment of children with disabilities has increased from 43,000 in 2004 to 48,600 in 2005 (Indonesia 2007). As a gross percentage of enrolment, this comprises 5% and 2% of primary and junior secondary enrolment, respectively. These figures were, however, drawn from special schools enrolment and exclude children with disabilities enrolled in regular schools as part of the inclusive education programmes. The majority of current provision of special needs education is provided by the private sector (80%).

Children from very poor families INDONESIA and the PHILIPPINES: lack of appreciation of the importance of education is linked to the socio-economic situation of families, e.g. parents from the lowest income quintile are often not educated and sometimes do not see the value of education. LAO PDR: Access of the children from poor families to ECCD is very limited; Estimated GER for children of the richest quintile (43%) is more than ten times as high as for children from the lower quintiles (MICS III 2006).

Child Labourers INDONESIA: about 1.50M children aged 10–14 were in the labour force and not in school. Another 1.62M were not attending school and helping at home or doing other things. About 4.18M children of junior secondary school (13-15 years old), representing 19% of the age group, were not attending school. The incidence of child labour and nonattendance in school is higher in rural areas (National Socio-economic Survey, 2003) CAMBODIA: More that 50% of Cambodian school-aged children are involved in some form of economic activity, work an average of 22 hours a week, and account for almost 28% of household income. (World Bank, 2006) PHILIPPINES: Around 2.12 million children, or 9.1% of the 5-17 population are working (LFS, Oct. 2004) Cambodia: Many of these children combine their paid work with several non-economic activities, such as cleaning and water fetching, which they carry out to help the family. Overall, these chores take additional eight hours out of children’s time in a week. PHILIPPINES: In October 2004, the LFS revealed that around 2.12 million children (9.1% of young persons aged 5-17) are working. Children aged 15–17 were more likely to be employed than younger age groups. 2004 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS) pointed out that poor families (the lowest 30% of income strata) are more likely to have working children aged 5–17, with 23% compared with 8% among the non-poor families (higher 70% of income strata).

Street children Philippines: DSWD estimates around 222,417 street children across the country (1998), usually in urban areas. Indonesia: around 50,761 street children nationwide in 2003 according to the Department of Welfare. Street children in the Philippines is defined as children (5-18 years old) who either live or work on the streets, spending a significant amount of time engaged in different occupations, with or without the care and protection of responsible

Children affected/infected by HIV and AIDS According to UNDP, Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand have the highest infection rates in East Asia & the Pacific, with prevalence rates of more than 1% for youth Philippines has 0.03% prevalence rate for the population aged 15-49 years, Indonesia, 0.10%, Malaysia, 0.5% in 2005 (WHO 2006). Available data on HIV/AIDS in these countries do not reveal the proportion of children among these cases. Thailand: 16,000 infected children in 2005 Cambodia: an estimated 12,000 children under 15 years of age are living with HIV/AIDS Prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the INSULAR Southeast Asia sub-region is considered low, this is not a cause for complacency. Philippines: as of August 2005, there were around 2,333 HIV infections, including 697 AIDS cases and 273 HIV/AIDS-related deaths. This translates to a 0.03% prevalence rate for the population aged 15 to 49 years Indonesia, HIV prevalence for adults ages 15 - 49 is estimated to be 0.10% in 2005 Malaysia’s HIV/AIDS prevalence, on the other hand, was at 0.5%. There were 70,559 cases of infection, of which 10,663 were AIDS cases (WHO 2006). Available data on HIV/AIDS in these countries do not reveal the proportion of children among these cases. Myanmar, Cambodia, and Thailand are facing particularly high infection rates. According to the UNDP, these three countries have the highest infection rates in East Asia and the Pacific, with prevalence rates of more than 1% for youth In Myanmar, there were approximately 360,000 HIV cases in 2005 (adults and children), and every year at least 10,000 HIV-positive women become pregnant and give birth to 3,000 to 4,000 children who are infected with HIV (UNICEF, 2005). In Thailand in 2005, there were 560,000 persons infected with HIV/AIDS, 16,000 of whom were children (UNAIDS, 2006), while in Cambodia, there were an estimated 170,000 HIV cases in 2003, and approximately 12,000 children under 15 years of age living with HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS, 2004).

Children in difficult circumstances Philippines: armed conflict in some areas have resulted to loss of lives, displacement , delays in the delivery of basic education services, and incidences of children recruited as child soldiers Conflicts also exist in Indonesia: Aceh and Papua (Irian Jaya) Children affected by natural disasters: Thailand, Indonesia: 2004 tsunami, Myanmar: Cyclone Nargis (matrix) Issue: no data Countries have to plan for post-conflict strategies Natural disasters: countries have to plan for relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts when a natural disaster strikes

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION What are being done to address the learning needs of these groups? What are the future plans to ensure their inclusion? What are the lessons on critical factors on success and failures on reaching the unreached? Several good practices have been cited – refer to the national MDA reports and the sub-regional reports Refer to country matrices