In celebration of Literacy month this September, youth groups belonging to the Civil Society Network for Education Reform will be visiting selected campuses in Metro Manila appealing to other youth leaders. Out of School Youth (OSY) leaders launched campus tours in PUP, PNU, Ateneo and UP. Starting on the 21 st of September, youth leaders will be conducting a series of fora, room to room discussions and public campaign activities . E-Net, with their OSY leaders and selected student councils and student organizations, will set up campaign booths inside campuses, mobilizing students and conducting information and education campaign targeting fellow concerned students of the actual situation of education in our country.
On the 24 th of September they will be lobbying in Congress for an increase on the budget for ALS, as they say it is the program that reach out to OSY, but it only receives a meager allocation from the DepEd. "Bilang mga kabataan, nais naming ipaabot sa pamahalaan, ang patuloy na paglabag sa aming karapatan sa edukasyon, ang pangunahing sanhi ng patuloy na pagdami ng bilang nga mga OSY na tulad ko" (We would like the government to see that our right to education are not the granted, the primary reason why the number of OSYs like me continue to increase), said Jamaica Malapit , the group's spokesperson. Further, she relates that in her community alone, children and youth living in urban poor communities are either forced to work or become juveniles as an aftermath of being deprived of opportunities given by education.
Out of School Youth population in the country is alarmingly high and is continually increasing. The government's statistical agency has yet to come out with an official data on the number of OSY in the country, but E-Net estimates the number to be pegged around 16 Million already. This number is very close to the actual number of children who are presently in school, meaning the number of OSY is almost the same as those in the formal school and unless a drastic measure is implemented to address this, the country is poised to contend with a future generation of youth deprived of education. The Civil Society Network for Education Reforms (E-Net Philippines), a network of NGO's, community organizations and teacher's unions launched a campaign dubbed People's Voice in Education with the theme: Ten Days for Education, Ten Voices of the People in cooperation with various organizations and national government agencies and community organizations of Out of School Youth (OSY). E-Net along with community youth leaders is strongly concerned about the problems of the marginalized and vulnerable groups, the poor families comprising of out-of-school youths (OSY), which are most affected by inequality in education.
