"Marami tayong suliranin sa mga di pumapasok na bata. That is why we are encouraging parents to let their kids enter school," said Lapus.

"We already instructed public school heads to admit six-year-old children provided their readiness for school has been assessed positively by the school where they are applying for admission. We are doing this to increase participation rate," he added.

Lapus also appealed to the local government units (LGUs) to intensify their efforts to encourage parents in their communities to send their children to school, adding the national government is already doing its part to address the problem.

He said there is a pending legislation in Congress on responsible parenting, which mandates parents to let their kids enter school.

"May binibigay pang pabuya na P300 ang government through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) para lang papasok ang mga bata kaya wala nang dahilan para hindi sila mag-aral," he said.

Studies have shown, however, that even with free public education, children could still not attend school due to poverty and malnutrition.

Lapus said the department has been intensifying efforts at improving student participation and addressing malnutrition through its Food for School Program (FSP), which provides rice subsidy to students and their families.

In addition, he said the DepEd has been increasing partnership with various sectors to make public schools more conducive for learning.

Meanwhile, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) challenged DepEd authorities to immediately address the ballooning number of out-of-school youth aged 6 to 15 now at 3.33 million.

ACT chairperson Antonio Tinio said the figure has increased by 78 percent per cent since 2002.

"There were 1.86 million out of school children in 2002. This grew to 3.33 million in 2007. That’s an additional 1.46 million children forced out of school in just 5 years," Tinio said.

He urged DepEd to implement drastic intervention in order not to double or triple the number of children who are left out of school.

ACT called on the government to adopt the following measures to encourage more poor families to enrol and keep their kids in school: implement a genuine school feeding program to completely reach target recipients, establish a free public school bus or jeepney service in all schools, and abolish all school fees.