Kimberly Medina, a student at Mobo National High School in Masbate,
Philippines, sits at her desk listening attentively to her teacher.
Every school day, she pays Php 50 (USD 1.18) for a ride on a
habal-habal (a local motorcycle-taxi carrying three or more
passengers) before having to walk another hour to school. The
opportunity to make the trip is welcome though. Many times,
Kimberly's seat at school would remain empty because her parents
didn't have enough money for her transportation fare.

For many students at Mobo National High School, staying in
school is a challenge. The cost of transportation, school materials
such as notebooks, pencils, paper for projects and other fees force
many students to miss classes. Most are children of farmers and
fishermen – low income and daily wage earning families
– for whom every centavo counts. When the choice comes down
to using valuable funds to feed the family or send their child to
school for the day, education often takes the backseat to a
rumbling stomach.

In other cases, the burden of sending children to school becomes
too great, and many youths must drop out to help their parents in
the farms or to find work in urban centres, usually as domestic
workers or laborers. Unprepared, they become vulnerable to
exploitation, cannot compete with other applicants or become
trapped in low paying jobs where they have no bargaining power to
ask for better wages and conditions.

Masbate province lies in the centre of the Philippine
archipelago. Its serene surroundings belie a struggle for survival.
Like many other provinces in the country, it has seen an exodus of
Filipinos seeking greener pastures abroad or in larger cities in
the country.

The Philippines has a dominantly young population with more than
a third below 15 years of age and a high national secondary school
drop out rate. Many young people say they have to abandon their
education because they don’t have enough money to pay for
transportation costs, school meals or projects. Young boys in
poverty-stricken provinces are especially vulnerable because they
are often pressured to help support their families as soon as
possible.

To encourage young Filipinos, particularly those living in
provinces that see heavy migration outflows, to finish their
education, IOM Philippines and the Overseas Workers Welfare
Administration (OWWA) co-implemented the education subsidy
component of the Joint Programme on Alternatives to Migration:
Decent Jobs For Filipino Youth. The Joint Programme which focuses
on the Youth, Employment, and Migration thematic window is
currently being run by IOM together with other UN Country Team
members, namely: International Labor Organization (ILO), United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA). It is supported by the Spanish government through the
Millennium Development Goals Fund (MDG-F).

For school year 2010-2011, IOM and OWWA started with 288 student
beneficiaries from four of the country's poorest provinces –
Masbate, Antique, Maguindanao and Agusan del Sur. For this year,
the number of student beneficiaries increased to 450 pupils coming
from 15 beneficiary schools.

Through the subsidy, each beneficiary receives a P1,000 monthly
allowance. Participating schools meantime receive a P500 one-time
miscellaneous fee for each of the beneficiaries to cover school
fees. In addition, student beneficiaries are eligible to receive
special assistance in terms of medical assistance, remedial classes
and psychosocial support.

In exchange, students and their parents who fall under the
programme sign commitment letters where parents agree to let their
children finish school instead of pushing them to find work or to
skip school to help in harvest time. Students, meantime, agree to
attend their classes. Unlike other scholarship programmes, students
do not have to meet a minimum grade point average. They must simply
finish school.

"Thank you very much for all your help. Now, I don't have to
miss class to help my parents. Now, my studies are not a heavy
burden because you are helping us," writes Kimberly in a letter to
IOM.

The joint programme also hopes to localize youth employment
migration policies and programmes through one stop resource and
support centres, strengthen public and private partnerships to
develop alternative employment and services for youth, increase
services for youth, enhance technical and vocational skills
training and develop more inclusive flexible secondary education
for youth.

Through these initiatives, impoverished Filipino youth will be
encouraged to complete their education and maximize their potential
instead of selling themselves short.

It begins by making sure that there are no more empty seats in
classrooms.

For more information, please contact Ricardo Casco, IOM
Philippines, "mailto:rcasco.int">rcasco@iom.int

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Some of the letters written by student beneficiaries from Mobo
National High School in Masbate, Philippines. Inset: Student
beneficiaries with parents during the awarding ceremonies of the
programme. © IOM 2010