The Role of Income and Employment on School Participation Rate in Pasay City and Eastern Samar

Abstract

The Philippines committed itself to the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDG), one of which is the universal access to primary education by 2015. To address the goal, supply factors and demand factors must be considered. Supply factors refer to the ability of the government to provide resources to finance elementary education. Demand factors refer to the variables affecting household’s decision to demand educational services such as income, education cost, and demographic characteristics of the households: age structure and family characteristics. This study explored the extent to which household income and household head employment status influence elementary school participation rate among urban and rural households. Based on household data, it was empirically verified that the magnitude of household income does not significantly affect school participation. Although household income has a very small impact on school participation, it must not be ignored because of the probability that households will use the additional income received to augment the insufficiency of basic sustenance that can aid in increasing school participation. Another important result of the study is the varying and positive impact of the employment status on school participation in Pasay and Eastern Samar respectively. School participation can be guaranteed if the household head is employed. This dictum does hold true in Pasay City and Eastern Samar evidencing that parent’s employment status plays an important role in the school participation of children as suggested in the literature. Keywords: employment status; human capital theory; millennium development goals on education; school participation DOI: 10.3860/ber.v20i2.1911 DLSU Business & Economics Review 20.2 (2011), pp. 23-31