SENATOR Panfilo Lacson aims to cut the country’s dropout rate by pushing Edukasyon Plus program that seeks to reverse a disturbing trend and give Filipinos the quality education they deserve.

According to a report in 2019, the Philippines has the highest dropout rate among countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which for Lacson and Senate President Vicente Sotto III is simply unacceptable, as education is a means to bring more Filipinos out of poverty and to move toward progress.

Through Edukasyon Plus, government’s commitment to protect the right to quality education for all Filipinos would solidify while crafting a vision that would eliminate the dropout rate of 6.38 percent in elementary students and 7.82 percent of secondary school students, according to The Borgen Project released on Oct. 6, 2019.

Making matters worse is the surge of the Covid19 pandemic, as one-fifth of Filipino elementary and high school students — equivalent to more than five million school children — failed to enroll for the School Year 2020-2021, according to reports.

Lacson and Sotto said the government should not only focus on releasing regulations to boost the quality of education in the country, but also take care of the needs of the youth who are forced to stop schooling owing to poverty and other issues.

Under Edukasyon Plus, Filipino youth would have free tuition and a P5,000 allowance every month along with access to an internship program in government offices starting with senior high school students.

Lacson said once implemented, students would then have the freedom to choose the courses they want to take in college, giving a chance for the country to strengthen its agricultural and medicine sectors.

Lacson and Sotto also mentioned their plan for the government to buy 50 percent of the produce by local farmers and fishermen at the correct prices, to guarantee their income and to insulate them from middlemen, who take advantage of them by lending them capital and then buying their goods at less than farmgate prices.

“Ito’y pinag-aralan na namin, kinuwenta na namin, kaya kailangan talagang tugunan ang pangangailangan para umangat ‘yung buhay at ma-inspire ‘yung ating mga kabataan na kumuha ng courses sa agriculture,” the three-term senator added.