1
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF THE STUDENTS WHO ARE 4PS BENEFICIARIES
A Research Proposal
Presented to
the Faculty of the Graduate School
Leyte Normal University
Tacloban City
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements in FD 501 (Basic Research)
By
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM
INTRODUCTION
As the famous quotation of Dr. Jose Rizal says, "children are the hopes of our country", it is just right to support and provide children their needs to help them become the best of what they can be in the future. But how can the children help the country when they themselves cannot afford to have quality education? Filipinos have deep regard when it comes to education (Philippine EFA 2015). But the right to education here in the Philippines has been hindered by poverty. Filipino families who are deprived from their basic needs tends to let their children stop from school and instead help them find a job to make a living.
According to the 1987 constitution, "The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make education accessible to all". And with this as the ground, the Philippine government initiated a version of CCT or conditional cash transfer that is called Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4ps. The aim of this program is to eradicate extreme poverty in the Philippines by investing in health and education particularly in children from 0-18 years of age (Montilla et.al, 2015).
The beneficiaries of this program are required to undergo trainings on responsible parenthood (Family Development Session), have pregnant women and their children undergo check-ups, and parents are required to send their children to public school to avail the cash grant (Montilla et.al, 2015). 4Ps has two components and that is health and education. Under the health component, each family-beneficiary receives a total of PHP 6,000 annually for their health and nutrition expenses. On the other hand, under the education component, the program provides a total of PHP 3,000 per child (with a maximum of three children per household) for a school year and that is for their educational expenses. And to avail the said cast grant, children aged 3-5 years old must be enrolled in day care program or pre-school and attend at least 85% of the required schools days. While children aged 6-18 years old must be enrolled in school and attend at least 85% of the required school days. Indeed, this program is a great help for the poor families and for their children to get a chance to quality education (Reyes et.el, 2015).
Provided all this financial assistance to support the education of children, this study was undertaken to assess whether 4Ps has helped the student to perform well in school.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
This study primarily focuses on the performance of the pupils who are 4Ps beneficiaries in a public school. Specifically this study answers the following questions:
What is the academic performance of the students who are 4Ps beneficiaries?
Is there a significant relationship between school attendance and academic performance of the 4Ps student-recipients?
Is there a significant difference in the academic performance of the male and female 4Ps student-recipients?
HYPOTHESIS
HO: There is no significant relationship between school attendance and academic performance of the 4Ps student-recipients.
HO: There is no significant difference in the academic performance of the male and female 4Ps student-recipient.
FRAMEWOK OF THE STUDY
This study was anchored on the theory of Social Reconstructionism by Theodore Brameld, who believes that students are critical element in bringing about social change. Children should be not be deprive with education. Education has been the foundation of all the skilled and professionals who contributes to the society. According to George Counts, the social issues of the 1930's involve racial discrimination, poverty, and unemployment which are similar to present issues. And this is where the government had initiated the conditional cash transfer to eradicate poverty and help children to have the right to education.
Selective Material Gratification, refers to beneficiaries feeling gratified by receiving cash transfer (Perova, 2010). The cash grant that the beneficiaries will be receiving will help them in their expenses such as health and education. In this case, the beneficiaries will feel more gratified towards the government. This will serve as an incentive to reciprocate the benefits that they receive by participating in civic activities (Verba et al., 1995). And that, children will no longer be working for their family, but instead they will be sent to school. And children are expected to do well in school especially with their academic performance since they are provided with the things they need in their studies.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The researcher believed that the result of this study will help the following assess the 4Ps program and its effect to the performance of the pupils.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development. The researcher believes that the result of this study will be of great importance to the department since they are the ones monitoring the 4Ps program. May this study serve as the basis in the modification of the conditions in giving cash grants. Condition must not only focus on the attendance of the pupils all throughout the school year but rather, the performance of the pupils in school. The department should implement a maintaining grade for pupils under the program, so that parents will have a hands-on monitoring on the performance of their children in school. And with that as the basis, pupils will do well in school.
The Administrators. The result of the study would be the basis of constructing and implementing new and innovative teaching aids to help teachers fully supervise and assess the pupils to achieve their full potential, since children are financially supported in their studies by the government.
The Teachers. The result of this study may help the teacher in constructing and developing new teaching strategies to help the pupils in their performance and be mindful that even if pupils are provided and supported by government, they still need equal guidance to perform well in school. The factors affecting the performance of the pupils may also help the teacher as their basis in making daily lessons.
The Parents. The result of this study will inform the parents that their guidance is a big impact on the performance of the pupils in school.
The Students. May the result of this research helps the student in understanding that coming to school daily may be a guarantee that they will also have good academic performance. And may the result give them the overview of how the government is supporting their studies and that they must do their part by studying well.
SCOPE AND LIMITATION
This study was an attempt to find out the performance of the students who are 4Ps beneficiaries enrolled in Grade 7 of Kauswagan National High School.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
To facilitate the understanding of the terms used, the following are defined:
Academic Performance. It is the outcome of education- the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their educational goals. It is measured by the final grade earned in the course.
CCT or Conditional Cash Transfer. This is a program that transfer cash, generally to poor households, on the condition that those households make prespecified investments in the human capital of their children. Health and nutrition conditions generally require periodic check-ups, growth monitoring, and vaccinations for children less than 5 years of age; perinatal care for mothers and attendance by mothers at periodic health information talks. Education conditions usually include school enrolment, attendance on 80–85 percent of school days, and occasionally some measure of performance (Fiszbein et.al).
Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. Refer to the national poverty reduction strategy that provides conditional cash transfer to extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education particularly of children aged 0-18.
Selective Material Gratification. Refers to beneficiaries feeling gratified by receiving cash transfers (Perova, 2010).
Social Reconstructionism. An educational theory that advocates change, improvement and the reforming of the school and society. Believes that students are the critical element in bringing about social change. According to Paulo Freire, a person must learn to overcome oppression and to not be a victim. Rather than "teaching as banking" Freire thought that teaching and learning was the way for a child to invent and reinvent the world.
4Ps Beneficiaries. Refer to poor households with pregnant women and/or with children 0-18 year old selected by the Department of Social Welfare and Development to be a part of the program through the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTSPR).
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This chapter presents the related literature and studies regarding the legal basis of the implementation of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4ps. This will also present the impact of 4ps on the performance and school attendance of the students who are beneficiaries of this program.
Education plays a very important role in every Filipino, since it is believed that through education, one can achieve successful life. And education has always been strongly viewed as a pillar of national development and a primary avenue for social and economic mobility (Philippine EFA 2015). A clear evidence of the value placed on education is the proportion of the national government budget going to the sector. According to the Article XIV, Sec. 5, paragraph 5 of the Philippine Constitution the Department of Education (DepEd), the country's biggest bureaucracy, is given the highest budget allocation among government agencies each year as required by the 1987 Philippine Constitution. The right of every Filipino to quality basic education is further emphasized in Republic Act 9155 or the Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001. Along with Republic Act 6655 or the Free Secondary Education Act, these laws reaffirm the policy of the State to protect and promote the rights of all Filipinos by providing children free and compulsory education in the elementary and high school level. This pertains to six years of free tuition fees for children aged 6 to 11, and free four years of secondary schooling for those aged 12 to 15.
With this as the ground, the government initiated the so called Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps in which one of the aims is to achieve universal primary education. As stated in the Explanatory Note of Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago on the Constitution, Article 2, Section 9, of Fifteenth Congress of the Republic of the Philippines, first Regular Session, Senate S. No. 92, The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is more than a welfare program; it addresses structural inequities in society and promotes human capital development of the poor, thus, breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty. The conditions attached to the grants require parents to undergo trainings on responsible parenthood, have their children undergo health check-ups and ensure school attendance. The program ensures that there is sufficient resource for the health, nutrition and education of children aged 0-14 year old.
In addition to the note of Sen. Santiago, an initial study on the pilot areas of the program shows promising results. In Esperanza and Sibagat, Agusan del Sur for example, two of the pilot areas of the 4Ps elementary school enrollment has increased by fifteen percent (15%). Children covered by 4Ps have higher attendance compared to the general population of children in school. Given the far reaching effects of this program in empowering the poor to cross over from their lives of poverty to a better future, there is a need to ensure the sustainability of this Program from one administration to another. The passage of this bill is earnestly sough.
Because of the success of the study, it was realized that the program has helped children in their studies, thus they implement the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program last 2008. As stated again from the above Explanatory Note of Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) shall refer to the national poverty reduction strategy that provides conditional cash transfer to extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education particularly of children aged 0-15.
The program has strict compliance when it comes to the school attendance of the students who are beneficiaries because it is their basis in giving the cash transfer. It is therefore expected for the beneficiaries to attend school regularly or at least 85% of the school days. There are studies that shows how the 4Ps program affects the school attendance and the performance of the student.
A research was conducted by Montilla, et. al. entitled " Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps): Assistance to Pupils Education" in Diogenes R. Cabarles Elementary School and the finding was that 4Ps has significant impact on pupils' education based on its beneficiary conditionalities, is able and motivated to attend classes because of adequate school supplies, satisfied meals, parasitic free stomach and supportive and active parents.
Another study was also conducted by Brian O. dela Torre of Balamban Elementary School, and in his paper entitled "Financing Education through the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps)", it was revealed that 4Ps contributed greatly to the school's performance indicators. This study also raised the awareness of the school personnel and the recipients of the program's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Furthermore, the study concludes that 4Ps certainly helped its recipients and the school with 4Ps enrolees. It is therefore recommended that the program be continued but improved to ensure the attainment of its objectives.
As cited by Reyes and Tabunga (2012), in the long-run, the 4Ps' goal is to achieve improvements in human capital. The 4Ps is seen to have great potential in increasing educational attainment and improving nutrition and health outcomes based on the experience of other countries who have implemented the CCT. One of the problems in the educational system that the 4Ps is expected to impact is increasing dropout rates. The CCT programs in other countries have been successful in achieving higher enrolment rates.
And this program does not only achieve higher enrolment and attendance but also produces students who have good academic performance. A study was conducted by Agbon et.al (2013) in Cebu City, and according to one of the respondents, "Every year in Tejero, we have a recognition day for children who are beneficiaries of the 4Ps. In the past, they have not been part of the honors' list because they did not have the resources to buy materials for their experiments and other school requirements. From just being part of the regular class, they are now in the science class. We have the recognition day to remind everyone that these children are beneficiaries of the 4Ps."
On the other side, a report about conditional cash transfer was conducted by Fiszbein 2009, that a number of education programs have been shown to increase school enrollment (in some cases dramatically so) without improvements in learning outcomes. The result of the evaluations conducted present particular challenges for CCTs. The results from these evaluations present particular challenges for CCTs. Conditional cash transfers frequently are targeted geographically. Because they work in especially poor areas, the quality of the supply of education (and health) services is low. In addition, CCTs use proxy means to identify poor households. The evaluations discussed above generally suggest that raising the achievement of these disadvantaged students is particularly difficult— even when they have been brought into school.
Given all these legal bases and study about how cash transfer or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program affects the school attendance, enrolment and educational attainment of the beneficiaries, these study would like to know whether the program has also improved the academic performance of the student beneficiaries.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
To further understand this study, this chapter contains the following details:
Research Design
This study used the descriptive-correlational method of research. Descriptive in way that it describes the academic performance of the 4Ps student-recipients and correlational because it will determine the relationship between school attendance, gender, and the academic performance.
Research Locale
This study will be conducted at Kauswagan National High School, Palo Leyte under Area 1 of Leyte Division. The population of the school is composed of 86 students and 5 teachers and there are 45 student-recipients of 4Ps.
Respondents of the Study
The respondents of this study are the Grade 7 Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) student-recipients of Kauswagan National High School for school year 2015-2016. There are 25 students enrolled in Grade 7 and 11 are 4Ps recipients.
Research Instrument
The researcher uses the Form 138 (Report Card), and the School Form 5 (Report on Promotion and Level of Proficiency) of the student-recipients to identify the academic performance of the students, number of school days attended, and gender. The SPSS were also used to compute the correlation coefficient of the variables being tested.
Research Procedure
This study utilized the interview method. The researcher interviewed the teacher-adviser of Grade 7 regarding the list of names of the 4Ps student recipients and their attendance in school for the school year 2015-2016. The researcher used the Form 138 (Report Card) and School Form 5 (Report of Promotion and Level of Proficiency) as the basis of the identification of the school attendance and the academic performance of the 4Ps student-recipients.
Statistical Treatment
This study uses the correlation coefficient to describe the direction and strength of linear correlation between school attendance and academic performance. Pearson's Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to test the null hypothesis.
CHAPTER 4
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
This chapter presents, analyse, and interprets data from the interview and the documents gathered. The answers to all the research questions of the study based on the data gathered by the researcher are presented following the order of the problems in Chapter 1.
Table 1. General Average of the 4Ps student-recipients
Table 1 provides descriptive information about the academic performance of the 4Ps student-recipients. The highest general average is 88.468 and the lowest is 76.96. The mean percentage grade is 82.00. And according to the proficiency level, 4 out of 11 of the students or 36.36% falls on the Proficiency Level, and 2 out of 11 students or 18.18% falls on the Approaching Proficiency Level, and the last 5 out of 11 students, or the 45.45% of the 4Ps student-recipients fall under Developing Proficiency.
Table 2. The general average and the number of absences of the 4Ps student recipient.
Table 3. Correlation of the general average and number of school attended by 4Ps student-recipients.
Correlations
GRADES
NUMBER OF SCHOOL DAYS ATTENDED
GRADES
Pearson Correlation
1
.709*
Sig. (2-tailed)
.015
N
11
11
ATTENDANCE
Pearson Correlation
.709*
1
Sig. (2-tailed)
.015
N
11
11
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
Table 2 shows two different variables, the GPA (General Average) and Absences of 4Ps student-recipients while table 3, shows the correlations of the two variables. The researcher used the Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient to know the relationship of between school attendance and academic performance. Pearson's r is 0.709, hence the correlation is positive and the strength of linear correlation is high. Also, the associated ρ-value is 0.015 which is less than ɑ= 0.025, hence the null hypothesis is rejected. It was found out, from the data presented, that there is significant relationship (negatively correlated) between school attendance and academic performance. Student who have lesser absences tend to have higher grades and students who acquired many absences tend to have lower grades.
Table 4. Gender and the general average of the 4Ps student-recipients
Correlations
FEMALE
MALE
FEMALE
Pearson Correlation
1
.933*
Sig. (2-tailed)
.021
N
6
5
MALE
Pearson Correlation
.933*
1
Sig. (2-tailed)
.021
N
5
5
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
Table 5. Correlation of male and female 4pS student-recipients.
Table 4 shows the difference between the academic performances of the male and female 4Ps student-recipient while table 5 shows the correlation of male and female academic performance. Again, the researcher used the Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient to describe the difference of two variables which is the academic performance of male and female student-recipients. Using the SPSS, correlation analysis was made. Pearson's r is 0.933 and it is positive, on the other hand, the ρ-value is 0.21 (two-tailed) and is less than 0.025, hence the null hypothesis is rejected. Finding revealed that gender has significant difference in the academic performance. Female 4Ps student-recipients tend to have higher grades that male 4Ps student-recipients do.
CHAPTER 5
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, RECOMMENDATION
This chapter presents the summary of the findings in the study, the conclusion derived from these finding and the recommendations made.
Summary
This study was conducted to know the academic performance of the 4Ps student-recipients and the effects of school attendance and gender in the academic performance. Specifically, this study sought to answer the specified questions in Chapter 1. And based on the problems, the following hypotheses were formed:
HO: There is no significant relationship between school attendance and academic performance of the 4Ps student-recipients.
HO: There is no significant difference in the academic performance of the male and female 4Ps student-recipient.
This study used the pearson's product-moment coefficient to know the relationship of the variables being tested. And the result of the statistical analysis using Pearson's coefficient shows that the null hypothesis being presented must be rejected. Thus, there is a significant relationship between school attendance and academic performance of the 4Ps student-recipients. Although the relationship of the variables is negative correlated. Meaning, when absences is smaller, academic performance is higher.
Conclusion
Based on the cited findings presented in Chapter 4, it was found out that school attendance plays important role in achieving good academic performance. Lesser absences committed by the 4Ps student-recipient, the higher academic performance they'll get than those who commit absences often. It was also shown in this research that gender affects the academic performance of the students. Females have higher academic performance than that of the male 4Ps student-recipients.
Recommendation
Based on the findings and conclusions of this study, it is recommended that the government may continue to support the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program in order to eradicate poverty and help children to have quality education. The Department of Social Welfare and Development or the DSWD shall not only impose strict compliance of the school attendance but also impose strict monitoring in the academic performance of the 4Ps student-recipients so that not only students will be motivated to learn but also the parents can monitor the academic performance of their children. The researcher also hopes that this study may be used as a basis of further study with larger population so that the 4Ps student-recipients will be well represented.
REFERENCES
Agbon, A.B. et al. (2013). Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps): Examining Gaps
and Enhancing Strategies in Cebu City, Philippines*
Dela Torre, Brian O., (2016). Financing Education through the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps)
Montilla et.al., (2015). Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps): Assistance to Pupil's
Education
Philippine Education For All 2015: Implementation and Challenges
Reyes, C.M. & Tabunga, A.D. (2012). Conditional Cash Transfer Program in the
Philippines: Is It Reaching the Extremely Poor?
Reyes, C.M. et al. (2015). Promoting Inclusive Growth through the 4Ps
Santiago, M.D.(2010). Explanatory note, Fifteenth Congress of the Republic of the
Philippines
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uses_and_gratifications_theory
MALE VS FEMALE
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE VS ABSENCES
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
