TAGUM CITY, Davao del Norte – Of the estimated one million six-year-old children in the country, only about 50 percent of them – or barely 500,000 – are actually enrolled in Grade l, the Department of Education (DepEd) announced here recently.

Education Undersecretary for Regional Operations Ramon C. Bacani attributed the poor participation rate in the first grade largely to the failure of many parents, especially those in rural areas, to know that the DepEd, since last school year, had reduced from seven to six-years-old the entrance age for Grade l in public schools.

As this developed, Bacani sought the assistance of some 5,000 elementary and secondary school journalists to help disseminate through their respective campus newspapers the lowering of the entrance age for first graders in public schools.

The campus scribes recently participated in a week-long DepEd-managed 2010 National Schools Press Conference (NSPC) in this capital city of Davao del Norte.

Bacani said that if all six-year-old children get enrolled in Grade l, “the participation rate in that grade level would jump to at least 95 percent.”

At the same rime, Bacani announced to the campus journalists the recent government’s move to expand pre-school education for five-year-old children in public schools to help reduce pupil dropout in the first three grades of elementary education.

Bacani noted that children who fail to undergo pre-school education lack the necessary social, pedagogical, and academic preparation for the initial years in formal education.

“This sometimes results to not a few children getting discouraged in their studies which ultimately results to their dropping out in Grades l, 2, or 3,” Bacani said.

According to Bacani, pupil dropout not only adversely affects a school’s cohort-survival rate as it reduces the number of children who entered Grade l to complete the six-year-elementary education course.