Academic Achievement of 4ps Beneficiarie

Polytechnic University of the Philippines Graduate School DOCTORAL IN EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT M.H. Del Pilar Campus

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF PANTAWID PAMILYANG PILIPINO PROGRAM (4Ps) BENEFICIARIES INPUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN LAGUNA

A Proposed Research Topic Paper Submitted to EMANUEL C. DE GUZMAN, PhD. Polytechnic University o the Philippines Sta. Mesa, Manila

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Course

RH 731  – DISSERTATION SEMINAR 2 for the Degree Doctoral in Educational Management in 2nd Semester, AY 2014-2015

by

LESLIE D. VALEÑA

April 6, 2015

Introduction

The Philippines recognizes the need to address issues on poverty reduction. Being a third world country, several means in order to keep at par with the Millennium Development Goals were observed. One of the most popular measures measures adopted by the country is the implementation of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program Program (4Ps) in year year 2007. 4Ps is a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program patterned after the success of the different CCTs in Latin American Countries. The successes of programs like Bolsa Familia of Brazil and Oportunidades of Mexico inspired the implementation of the program. Orbeta (2013) defined 4Ps as the centrepiece social protection program of the Philippine government. Like conditional cash transfer programs in many other countries, it provides cash grants to beneficiaries provided they comply with specified conditions such as keeping their children in school, getting health check-ups, check -ups, and attending family development sessions.

A household-beneficiary can receive as much as P1,400 monthly, which includes P500 per month for nutrition and health expenses and P300 per month per child (with a maximum of 3 children per household) for educational expenses. Household-beneficiaries must comply with certain conditions to continue receiving the cash grants, which could go on for a maximum of five years.

The conditions are: parents must ensure that their children attend school at least 85% of the time, and receive vaccinations and health care. Pregnant women must receive pre- and post-natal care and be attended during childbirth by a skilled health professional. Parents must attend responsible parenthood seminars, mother's classes, and parent effectiveness seminars.

The beneficiaries are selected through a Proxy Means Test. This test considers the ownership of assets, type of housing, education of the household head, livelihood of the family and access to water and sanitation facilities.

The program also helps to fulfil the country’s commitment to meet the Millennium Development

Goals (MDGs) by 2015, namely: 1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, 2) Achieve universal  primary education, 3) Promote gender equality, 4) Reduce child mortality, and 5) Improve maternal health. The said program has two objectives: 1) Social Assistance, which aims to grant cash assistance to the poor to address their immediate need; and 2) Social Development, which aims to break the intergenerational poverty cycle through investments in human capital. Background of the Study

Since its implementation in 2007, the program started to yield positive results. Santiago (2010) cited that initial study on the pilot areas of the program showed promising results. In Esperanza and Sibagat, Agusan del Sur for example, two of the pilot areas of the 4Ps elementary school enrollment has increased by fifteen percent (15%).Moreover, children covered by 4Ps have higher attendance compared to the general population of children in school. There has been a remarkable increase in the use of health services by pregnant women and children compared to 2007 and there has also been a significant increase in the vaccination rate as well as a decrease in  prevalence of malnutrition among children. Several studies backed up these initial findings. Results of recent evaluation studies on 4Ps revealed that it has no significant negative impact on work effort of household heads, leads to increased school participation of children, and results in increased household consumption of education-related goods. These findings were considered as early indicators of success of the 4Ps

 program. Moreover, Orbeta (2011) stated that due to the implementation of the program, parents now work to compensate for loss of income from children who attend school. Since beneficiaries are obliged to attend Family Development Sessions, they now publicly recognize the importance of education,

and

are

convinced

to

keep

their

children

in

school.

In addition, Meanwhile, Reyes and Mina (2011) found out that the program led to an increase of 3 to 4.6 percentage points in the school participation rate of children aged 6-14. The results showed that around 96.3 percent of children of 4Ps families attend school. For the matched non4Ps

families,

the

rate

ranges

from

91.7

to

93.3

percent.

However, additional findings show that 4Ps does not influence school participation of children  beyond the age coverage. The difference between the school participation rate of 4Ps  beneficiaries and matched non-4Ps age groups 15 to 18 turned out to be insignificant. This led to the proposal to extend support to existing 4Ps beneficiaries to allow students to graduate from high

school.

Tutor (2014) stated that households increased their consumption of education-related goods, which are goods required for continued program participation. Families have reallocated consumption to maintain their benefits, arguably because they understood the program logic and have positive expectations of its impact on future household welfare.

Despite of these positive results, critiques of the program argued that it is still a question whether school attendance will translate into academic achievement, completion of education, and eventually gainful employment. Parent-beneficiaries can only be hopeful about their children completing high school since they acknowledge the lack of other income generating opportunities, high cost of education, and limited provision and duration of 4Ps as major

constraints to their children’s full acquisition and benefit of education. The teachers recognize

the same formidable constraints and are likewise wary, even befuddled about opportunities for children

and

youth

from

the

(CCT)

households.

The above-cited premise encouraged the researcher to conduct a study identifying the academic  performance of 4Ps beneficiaries among public secondary schools in the Division of Laguna. More so, the researcher wanted to find out the extent of the implementation of the poverty reduction program as well as its effectiveness in promoting the holistic development of the Filipino

learners.

Theoretical Framework:

Academic achievement is undoubtedly a research after the heart of educational managers. In their attempt to investigate what determines academic outcomes of learners, they have come with more questions than answers. In recent time, prior literature has shown that learning outcomes namely academic achievement and academic performance have been determined by different variables as; family, school, society, and motivation factors (e.g..,Aremu & Sokan,2003;Aremu and Oluwole,2001;Aremu.2000). In the same vein, Parker, Creque, Harris, Majeski, Wool, and Hogan (2003) noted that much of the previous studies have focused on the impact of demographic and socio-psychological variables on academic achievement. More recently, another emerging dimension to the determinant of academic achievement is government factor (e.g., Aremu & Sokan, 2003; Aremu, 2004). In spite of the seeming exhaustiveness of literature on the determinants of academic achievement of learners, there seems to be more area of interest to be investigated. This becomes obvious in view of the continue interest of researchers and Educational managers; and the continued attention of government and policy makers and  planners.

Emotional Intelligence and Academic Performance

In the beginning, psychologists focused on cognitive constructs like memory and problem solving in their first attempt to write on intelligence. This did not last when researchers begun to challenge this orientation and recognised that there are other non-cognitive aspects of intelligence. For instance, Robert Thorndike wrote about social intelligence in 1937. And as early as 1943, David Wechsler proposed that the non-intelligence abilities are essential for  predicting ability to succeed in life. Imbrosciano and Berlach (2003) have remarked that ‘’success’’ may be viewed in three main domains. A good student is often referred to as being ‘’intelligent’’, or ‘’well behaved’’, or ‘’academically successful’’. Goleman (1995) gave a short

of answer when he asserted that success depends on several intelligences and on the control of emotion .Specifically, he stressed that intelligence (IQ) alone is no more the measure of success. According to him intelligent account for only 20% of the total success, and the rest goes for Emotional and Social intelligences. Abisamra (2000) then concluded that if emotional intelligence affects student achievement, then it is imperative for schools to integrate it in their curricula and thereby raising the level of students’ success.

According to Salovey and Mayer (1990), Emotional Intelligence is being able to monitor one’s own and other’s feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this to guide one’s thinking and actions. Again, Salovey and Mayer (1993) wrote that an emotionally

intelligent person is skilled in four areas: identifying, using, understanding, and regulating emotions. Similarly, Goleman also stressed that emotional intelligence consists of five components: Knowing one’s emotions (self -awareness), managing them, motivating self,

recognizing emotions in others (empathy), and handling relationships. In recent times therefore,

social scientists and educational psychologists are beginning to uncover the relationship of emotional intelligence to other phenomenon. These are: leadership (Ashfort & Humphrey,1995); group performance (Williams &Sternberg,1988); academic achievement (Abisamra,2000);and  policing(Aremu,2005).The foregoing attest to the significance of emotional intelligence to all constructs(school achievement inclusive).As a matter of fact, emotional intelligence (EI) has recently attracted a lot of interest in the academic literature.

Specifically, Finnegan (1998) argued that school should help students learn the abilities underlying the emotional intelligence. This he believes could lead to achievement from formal education years of the child. In a recent studies conducted by Parker, Summerfeldt, Hogan and Majeski (2001, 2002) they discovered that various emotional and social competencies were strong predictors of academic success. Similarly, Parker, et al...(2003) found emotional intelligence to be significant predictors of academic success. In the same vein, Low and Nelson (2004) reported that emotional intelligence skills are key factors in the academic achievement and test performance of high school and college students respectively. Likewise, Abisamra (2000) reported that there is a positive relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement. He therefore canvassed for inclusion of emotional intelligence in the schools’ curricula. Petrides, Frederickson and Furnham in Cotton and Wikelund(2005)argued that any investigation of the potential effects of emotional intelligence on academic performance must be  pursued in a specific context .In essence, the importance o f emotional intelligence on academic achievement has been found to be very significant .Nevertheless, and in spite of the studies reviewed, there is still a need to further investigate the relationship of emotional intelligence to academic achievement.

 Parental Involvement and Academic Performance

On parental involvement and academic achievement, studies have shown to date that the two variables seem to be positively related. Findings have demonstrated that parent’s involvement in

the education of the children has been found to be of benefit to parents, children, and schools (Tella and Tella 2003; Campbell, 1995; Rich, 1987). Rasinki and Fredrick’s (1988) concluded that parents play an invaluable role in laying the foundation for their children’s learning;   Zang

and Carrasquillo (1995) also similarly remarked that when children are surrounded by caring, capable parents and are able to enjoy nurturing and moderate competitive kinship, a foundation for literacy is built with no difficulty. Cotton and Wikelund (2005) ably capped it by asserting that the more intensively parents are involved in their children’s learning; the more beneficial are

the achievement effects.Thus, it is believed that when parents monitor homework, encourage  participation in extracurricular activities, are active in parents  – teacher associations, and help children develop plans for their future; children are more likely to respond and do well in school. Based on the results of Sixty-six studies, Henderson and Berla (1994) were of the opinion that repeated evidence has confirmed that the most accurate predictor of student achievement is the extent to which the family is involved in the child’s education, and not the family‘s level of

income. As a matter of fact, McMillan (2000a) noted that parental pressure has a positive and significant effect on public school performance. This becomes particularly obvious when the exactness of the parental pressure is brought to bear on the children’s academic performance.

Similarly, Schickedanz (1995) also reported that children of passive parents were found to  perform poorly academically .Valez in Ryan (2005) reported that academic performance is  positively related to having parents who enforce rules at home. The obviousness of the research findings repor ted in this study is that family involvement improves facets of children’s education

such as daily attendance (e.g. Cotton & Wikelund, 2001; Simon, 2000), student achievement (e.g. Cotton & Wikelund, 2001; Sheldom & Epst tein, 2001a, Simon, 2000; Van Voorhis, 2001)  behaviour (e.g.Sheldom & Epstein, 2001b; Cotton &Wikelund, 2001; Simon, 2000) and motivation (e.g. Cotton & Wikelund, 2001; Brooks, Bruno &Burns, 1997). It is on this note that (Deutsher and Ibe, n.d*) posited it was expected that parent involvement would have a large role on children’s performance. The foregoing, have shown that one of the greatest barriers to high

academic achievement for a good number of students, is lack of parental involvement in children’s education. In sum, research has shown that parents do want to get along with their children’s education knowing fully well that such involvement could promote better

achievement. However, parents need a better little direction as to how they can effectively do this. According to a magazine reports (2002),six types of programmes could be utilized by schools to build strong parental skills .These are: one, school can assist families with parenting and child-rearing skills; two, schools can communicate with families about school programmes and students progress and needs; three, school can work to improve families as volunteers in school activities; four, schools can encourage families to be involved in learning activities at home; five, schools can include parents as participants in important schools decisions, and six, schools can coordinate with business and agencies to provide resources and services for families, student, and the community. The importance of these programmes further attest to the fact that student’s academic performance is de pendent upon the parent-school bond. Thus the importance

of parental involvement on academic performance cannot be overemphasised. The stronger the relationship, especially between the parents and their wards’ education, the higher the academic

achievement .Adeyemo (2005) saw reason in this by stressing that there is need to foster home school partnership. In his attempt to give more meaning to his contribution on parental

involvement and children’s education, (Epstein,1997) put up a model in which he analysed how

children learn and grow through three overlapping spheres of influence: family school and community .According to him, these three spheres must form partnership to best meet the needs of the child. Epstein (1997) again identified six types of involvement based on the relationships  between the families, school and community .These are: parenting (skills), communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with the community. He stressed it clearly that these six types of involvement need to be included to have successful  partnerships (between the home and the school).Baker and Soden (1997) remarked that much of the research that examined the relationships between parent involvement and children’s

education assesses parent involvement by utilizing one particular measure, such as counting the number of parents that volunteer, coming to meetings, or coming to parent-teacher conferences. Other studies utilized measures that consists of a view closed-ended questions that target  particular aspect of parent  –   involvement and often focus on the number of times parents  participate in some particular events(Goldring &Shapira,1993;Griffith,1996;Grolnick & Slowiczek,1994, Zellman &Waterman ,1998).According to Baker and Soden (1997),this type of measure does not allow for a rich picture of parent involvement, nor generate new ideas. In this review so far, efforts have been made on what researchers have published on emotional intelligence and parental involvement, and how these could impact on academic achievement. It is the primary purpose of this study therefore to investigate the significant impact of these two constructs (emotional intelligence and parental involvement) on academic achievement of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiaries in Secondary Schools in Laguna.

Conceptual Framework

FEEDBACK

This study uses the Dependent-Independent Variable Framework. The Independent Variables consist mainly of the data from the profile of the respondents From the drawn data, it will be correlated against the academic achievement of the identified 4Ps beneficiaries in secondary schools in Laguna.

Statement of the Problem:

The primary question this research proposal aims to answer is “How well do 4Ps beneficiaries in Secondary Schools in Laguna perform academically?”

Specifically, it seeks to answer the following:

Specifically,

it

seeks

answers

to

the

following

questions.

1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of?



Gender



Age



Grade Level



Total number of children in the family



Total number of class attendance



Grade 2. What is the socio-economic status of the respondents? 2.1 Main source of livelihood of the parents 2.2 Monthly income of the parents 3. What is the Emotional Quotient of the 4Ps beneficiaries? 4. To what extent is the involvement of their parents in their education? 5. Is there a significant relationship between the students’ emotional intelligence and their academic performance? 6. Is there a significant relationship between parents’ involvement and students’ academic performance?

Hypothesis

The following hypotheses are tested in the study:

1.

There will be no significant relationship between emotional intelligence, parental involvement and participants’ academic achievement.

2.

Emotional intelligence and parental involvement are not significant predictors of  participants’ academic achievement.

3. There will be no relative effects of emotional intelligence and parental involvement on the academic achievement of the participants

Significance of the Study

Since the program is considered as the primary anti-poverty reduction program of the country, this study is very significant and timely on its implementation. Specifically, this study aims to  bring contribution to the following:

Administrators:

This study can serve as a basis for developing new policies and

recommendations in line with Poverty Alleviation. Results may also help in the planning of  programs which will complement 4Ps. Community: The findings of this study may help the community address issues on poverty

reduction as well as come up with means to further assist those who are in need. Policy-makers: The results of this study can be a basis for the passage of policies and laws. Teachers . Teachers may translate the information derived from the results of this study into

effective planning and implementation of administration and management of their classes. The results of this study are also hoped to provide information to the different poverty alleviation

 programs the government has. Also, teachers may integrate the results of this study in the methodology and strategy they apply especially in handling 4Ps beneficiaries. Researcher: it will serve as a great part in the completion of her requirements. Other Researchers: findings in this study may serve as a basis for further researchers in line

with this field. Summary of Methodology

This presents the research approach, method and technique that will be used in the study - the sampling technique, description of respondents, data-gathering procedure and statistical treatment of data that will be utilized in the conduct of the study. Research Design

This research will utilize the descriptive correlational techniques in drawing out for analysis. Descriptive research involved description, recording, analysis, and interpretation of recent nature, composition or process of phenomena. Key (1997) mentioned that descriptive research is used to obtain information concerning the current status of the phenomena to describe "what exists" with respect to variables or conditions in a situation. The methods involved range from the survey which describes the status quo, the correlation study which investigates the relationship between variables, to developmental studies which seek to determine changes over time. Research Locale

This study will be conducted in selected public secondary schools in the Division of Laguna. The researcher will gather information from 4Ps beneficiaries of the schools from the said division.

Information will be derived as well from Social Workers and parents who are

 beneficiaries of the said program.

Sample and Sampling Technique

The researcher will utilize purposive sampling which is more applicable answers of the interview based on their judgments. Purposive  judgmental, selective or subjective sampling, is a type of

because it focuses the

sampling,

also

known

as

non-probability sampling technique.

 Non-probability sampling focuses on sampling

techniques

investigated are based on the judgment of the

researcher.

where

the

units

that

are

Instrumentation and Data Gathering

Survey-questionnaire will be used as a primary tool for data gathering. The instrument will be constructed by the researcher and will undergo validation by experts in the field. Data Analysis

Data gathered will be treated using statistical tools. After doing so, results will be interpreted and analyzed in order to draw conclusions and recommendations.

Review of Related Literature and Studies

The 4Ps is a social program that entails monetary and non-monetary transfers to the poor or  poorest families who have school-aged children on the condition that they meet the program’s terms that are aimed at improving their capacities (Cecchini and Madariaga 2011). Brazil and Mexico were the first countries that implemented that 4Ps program. The main objective was to  provide cash to families who are in extreme poverty in exchange for some education and health care commitments. Since then, many countries, including the Philippines, have attempted to replicate their examples.

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, or 4Ps, is the Philippines’ version of the conditional

cash transfer. Based on the Department of Social Welfare and Development Studies (DSWD)  primer, the 4Ps is a poverty reduction and social development strategy of the national government. It provides cash transfers to extremely poor households to help improve their health, nutrition and education. The program specifically targeted poor families with children aged 0-14. The two main objectives of the program are social assistance and social development. The former aims to alleviate the poor’s immediate needs, hence it can be termed as a short-term

 poverty alleviation measure. The latter, however, aims to break the intergenerational poverty cycle by investing in human capital. Meanwhile, the 4Ps helps in fulfilling the country’s

commitment in the Millennium Development Goals particularly in: (1) eradicating extreme  poverty and hunger; (2) achieving universal primary education; (3) promoting gender equality; (4) reducing child mortality; and, (5) improving maternal health.

The 4Ps has two components, namely: health and education. Under the health component, the  program provides PhP6,000 annually (PhP500 per month) to each familybeneficiary for their health and nutrition expenses. Under the education component, it provides PhP3,000 per child for one school year (i.e., 10 months) for meeting educational expenses. Each family beneficiary shall receive for up to a maximum of 3 children under the educational grant.

In return, the family-beneficiaries have to commit themselves to the following conditionalities: (1) pregnant women must avail of the pre- and post-natal care and be attended during childbirth  by a trained medical professional; (2) parents must attend family development seminars; (3) children aged 0-5 must undergo regular preventive health checks and receive vaccines; (4) children aged 3-5 must attend day care or preschool classes at least 85 percent of the time; (5) children aged 6-14 must enroll in elementary or high school and attend at least 85 percent of the time; and, (6) children aged 6-14 must receive de-worming pills twice a year. The family beneficiaries will receive the grant for at most five years, provided that they comply with the conditionalities.

The eligible beneficiaries of the 4Ps are families: (1) from the poorest municipalities; (2) whose condition is equal to or below the provincial poverty threshold; (3) with children aged 0-14 and/or a pregnant woman at the time of assessment; and, (4) that agree to meet the program's conditionalities. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has chosen the  poorest municipalities based on the results of the 2003 Small Area Estimates (SAE) generated b y the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB). For municipalities with poverty incidence

higher than 50%, all barangays are assessed. But for those with poverty rate lower than 50%, the criteria for selecting barangays are th e “pockets of poverty” based on the available socioeconomic profile of the municipality. Conditional Cash Transfer Programs in Other Countries

This program is a local version of other conditional cash transfer programs of countries from Latin America. Literature revealed that program like Bolsa Familia (Brazil) and Oportunidades of Mexico provided special attention to older children, at least in terms of subsidy amount. This draws from the fact that there is a greater opportunity cost for older children to go to school. In Mexico, the data for 2000 shows that children start to drop out when they reach middle school (CWDA 2010). The rate goes lower as children get older. Hence, the Oportunidades provides assistance from the 3rd grade in elementary up to senior year. The assistance therefore covers 10 years of schooling at the maximum. Both Bolsa Familia (Mourão and de Jesus 2012) and Familias en Acción target children aged up to 17 for the education component of the program. In 2001, enrolment rate of children aged 8-11 in Brazil was 97 percent while that of 15-year-olds was only 87 percent. Hence, the Bolsa Escola program, renamed Bolsa Familia in 2003, was launched in 2001 to address this (Glewwe and Kassouf 2010).

True enough, studies show that 4Ps programs have greater impact on older than younger children. A study on the Colombian case shows that the 4Ps increased school participation of 14to 17-year-old children quite substantially, by 5 to 7 percentage points. On the other hand, the  program had lower effect on the enrolment rate of younger children, onl y about 1 to 3 percentage  points (Attanasio et al. 2010). A study on the Brazil’s case also showed greater impact on

enrolment of older children (i.e., those in Grades 5 to 8) than in younger children (i.e., Grades 1 to 4) (Glewwe and Kassouf 2010). In Mexico, an International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) study showed that the largest impacts were reported on children going to secondary school. An increase of over 20 percent in enrolment of girls and 10 percent for boys was observed. An important element of these 4Ps programs is their targeting design. These programs target the extremely poor . The Bolsa Familia of Brazil targets extremely poor households (i.e., those earning less than R$60 or US$34 per capita monthly) regardless of the household composition; there is no conditionality for the childless extremely poor households. This is in addition to the conditional monthly transfer that the program provides to poor families (i.e., those earning less than R$120 or US$68 per capita) with children aged 0-17 and/or a pregnant woman with up to a maximum of three children (Soares et al. 2010). The Oportunidades (formerly known as Progresa) started in rural communities, targeting extremely poor households. It later expanded to cover the extremely poor in urban areas. Colombia also targeted extremely poor households in selected communities. Effects of 4Ps to Education

Santiago (2010) cited that initial study on the pilot areas of the program showed promising results. In Esperanza and Sibagat, Agusan del Sur for example, two of the pilot areas of the 4Ps elementary school enrollment has increased by fifteen percent (15%).Moreover, children covered  by 4Ps have higher attendance compared to the general population of children in school. There has been a remarkable increase in the use of health services by pregnant women and children compared to 2007 and there has also been a significant increase in the vaccination rate as well as a decrease in prevalence of malnutrition among children.

Several studies backed up these initial findings. Results of recent evaluation studies on 4Ps revealed that it has no significant negative impact on work effort of household heads, leads to increased school participation of children, and results in increased household consumption of education-related goods. These findings were considered as early indicators of success of the 4Ps  program.

Moreover, Orbeta (2011) stated that due to the implementation of the program, parents now work to compensate for loss of income from children who attend school. Since beneficiaries are obliged to attend Family Development Sessions, they now publicly recognize the importance of education,

and

are

convinced

to

keep

their

children

in

school.

In addition, Meanwhile, Reyes and Mina (2011) found out that the program led to an increase of 3 to 4.6 percentage points in the school participation rate of children aged 6-14. The results showed that around 96.3 percent of children of 4Ps families attend school. For the matched non4Ps families, the rate ranges from 91.7 to 93.3 percent.

However, the program was found to have no impact on increasing enrolment among the older cohort of children aged 13-17. The majority of children aged 15-17 were not receiving 4Ps grants as of 2011 since the age limit for coverage is 14 years old. The authors attribute this to larger cost associated with sending older children to school and the higher opportunity cost because they can get employed instead. To address this issue, many 4Ps programs (i.e., those in Bangladesh, Brazil, Mexico, Honduras, and Turkey) provide larger cash transfers to older

children in order to compensate for the higher implicit/explicit cost associated with schooling. Younger children who came from households with relatively smaller number of school-aged children seem to be benefiting more from the program, compared to those who came from larger households. No significant impact was found among children coming from households with more than 3 school-aged children.

The most recent study done in the Philippines is that by Chaudhury and Okamura (2012). The study documented the causal effect of the 4Ps program on school participation. It used a small selective sample survey to determine the impact of 4Ps on the objective of increasing school  participation. Covering 900 households, with children aged 9-17, in 9 municipalities in all 3 major island groups, the sample was split evenly between beneficiary (treatment) households and non-beneficiary (control) households. The information on this came from their program status according to the 4Ps central database. Households were surveyed in 2008 through the Household Assessment Form (HAF) survey under the NHTS-PR for PMT purposes while the postintervention data came from their 2011 assessment survey. There was positive impact on school enrolment among children in the younger cohort aged 9-12 as of 2011. These are the children who received educational grants under the 4Ps program throughout the period. Overall, the estimated program effect for the younger cohort ranges between 6 to 17 percent. 4Ps beneficiary households are more likely to send their younger children to school compared to non-4Ps households.

Moreover, additional findings show that 4Ps does not influence school participation of children  beyond the age coverage. The difference between the school participation rate of 4Ps  beneficiaries and matched non-4Ps age groups 15 to 18 turned out to be insignificant. This led to the proposal to extend support to existing 4Ps beneficiaries to allow students to graduate from high

school.

Tutor (2014) stated that households increased their consumption of education-related goods, which are goods required for continued program participation. Families have reallocated consumption to maintain their benefits, arguably because they understood the program logic and have positive expectations of its impact on future household welfare.

Despite of these positive results, critiques of the program argued that it is still a question whether school attendance will translate into academic achievement, completion of education, and eventually gainful employment. Parent-beneficiaries can only be hopeful about their children completing high school since they acknowledge the lack of other income generating opportunities, high cost of education, and limited provision and duration of 4Ps as major constraints to their children’s full acquisition and benefit of education. The teachers recognize

the same formidable constraints and are likewise wary, even befuddled about opportunities for children

and

youth

from

the

(CCT)

households.

Challenges

In the Philippine case, data shows that the challenges we face as a country are similar to those of Mexico in some cases but different in others. Older Filipino children also have lower attendance rates than younger ones, which is an understandable empirical fact. However, the 4Ps focuses on the younger age range, limiting the intervention to poor families with children 14 years old and  below. This is so despite the fact that school participation is higher among elementary school children than older ones. The school attendance rate of elementary children (aged 6-11) was 94.42 percent in 2007 based on the APIS. In 2011, the estimate increased to 97.13 percent. At this high rate, it is plausible to expect that the impact of the 4Ps on school attendance could not go that large as the maximum of 100 is just around the corner. While we would certainly like to achieve universal access to basic education, the problem of non-attendance is more severe among older children. The attendance rate of children aged 15-18, for instance, was only 62.85 percent in 2007 and 65.47 percent in 2011, based on the APIS. If such group would have been targeted  by the program, the chances of making a great difference would have been simply larger.

Aside from these, Latin American 4Ps programs have other design features that are worth considering. For instance, pilot programs of several variations of 4Ps have been successful in Bogota, Colombia where the approach of postponing a lump-sum payment to ensure enrolment in a higher level did not affect attendance rates. In addition to the standard 4Psprogram, they implemented a savings 4Ps and graduation 4Ps. Mexico also provided incentive for finishing high school before the age of 22. This perspective in targeting not only young but also older children has a bearing on what impacts to expect  –   and that is, the program will likely lead to

greater impact in terms of point percentages on school participation of children in the older age range.

Bibliography

Cecchini, S. and A. Madariaga. 2011. Conditional Cash Transfer programmes: The recent experience in Latin America and the Caribbean. Cuadernos de la CEPAL No. 95 (September). Santiago, Chile: Unidad de Distribución de la CEPAL Chaudhury, N. and Y. Okamura. 2012. Conditional cash transfers and school enrolment: Impact of the Conditional Cash Transfer program in the Philippines. Philippine Social Protection Note  No. 6 (July). Washington, D.C.: The World Bank. County Welfare Directors Association of America (CWDA). 2010. Oportunidades: Mexico’s Conditional Cash Transfer Progam (October 28). Available online at http://www.cwda.org/downloads/tools/americanpoverty/OPORTUNIDADES.pdf.Retrieved on March 7, 2015.

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http://www.iadb.org/news/detail.cfm?language=English&id=3888 - Panama's Red de Oportunidades. http://dswd.gov.ph/articledetails.php?id=1100 - PRESIDENT ARROYO LAUNCHES THE PANTAWID PAMILYANG PILIPINO PROGRAM NAT IONWIDE