Malate, Manila – The Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office MIMAROPA through Pantawid Pamilyang Pamilya Program launched the Bata Balik Eskwela Campaign on May 20, 2019 as part of its efforts to encourage children beneficiaries to enroll in school and maintain their attendance in class. With tagline, “Edukasyon ay Mahalaga, Ito ay ating Ipaalala”, the campaign will continue until the end of enrollment which is set on August.

In order to sustain the compliance of the beneficiaries to the program’s conditionalities especially in education, the Pantawid Pamilya rolled out the Bata Balik Eskwela Campaign or BBE which is targeted mainly for Pantawid children who are not currently enrolled and not attending.

“The campaign was launched to encourage Pantawid children who are not attending school to continue studying so that they will fully utilize the program’s benefits,” said DSWD MIMAROPA OIC Regional Director Floreceli G. Gunio.

The Pantawid Pamilya provides conditional cash grants to the poor Filipino families, investing on health and education of the children. It provides P300.00 for every family who are compliant to its health conditionalities while another P300.00 for every monitored child who maintains 85% of their attendance in pre-school and elementary while P500.00 for those who are studying in high school. Only three children of the household-beneficiary can be monitored.

“Through the campaign, different reasons for not attending school were identified such as early pregnancy/fatherhood, bullying, gender-based violence, loss of interest, and working among others. These serve as guide to manage the cases of the children and provide them proper interventions,” explained Gunio.

Before the launch of the campaign, the Regional Office of Pantawid Pamillya convened all social workers of the DSWD Field Office MIMAROPA to create an action plan based on the different reasons for not attending school. These strategies have helped the field staff of the Provincial Operations Offices (POOs) in the execution of the campaign which include setting up of information desk during Brigada Eskwela; conducting focus group discussions to both parents and children; and tapping Alternative Learning System (ALS) coordinators to provide orientation about other modes of education offered by the Department of Education (DepEd) which they may also attend in lieu of the formal regular classes if they were not able to finish elementary or high school or have not attended school at all. In Oriental Mindoro, Pantawid Pamilya field staff conducted a stage play in every municipality. The stage play commenced on May 22, 2019 in Roxas, Oriental Mindoro and will continue until June 28, 2019. The play demonstrates stories of the beneficiaries and their struggles in life especially in gaining access to education. Through the stage play, the field implementer aim to exhibit the different means which beneficiaries may adopt in order to respond with their problems to allow them to continue studying.

Moreover, the program coordinates with the schools and Barangay Local Government Units (BLGUs) to discuss the involvement of the school’s Child Protection Policies and the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children in the implementation of the campaign. Starting June until August, the field staff will conduct case management, group work, and monitoring for those students who did not enroll for School Year 2019 to 2020.

“It is hoped that through these efforts, the importance of education in providing a better future will be instilled in the minds of the children beneficiaries,” Gunio said.

As of March 2019, there are 14,872 identified children beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilya in MIMAROPA Region who are not attending school.  ###