C. Visayas 4Ps youth session seen to reduce school dropout

PNA
28 Oct 2021, 16:32 GMT+10

CEBU CITY - The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Central Visayas on Thursday said its development programs, which were designed for the youth-beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), have reduced school dropout incidence here.

In a statement, Jiah Sayson, DSWD-7's 4Ps regional coordinator, said the youth development session (YDS) in schools through the 4Ps Expanded Regional Advisory Council (ERAC) supported both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries in achieving their "holistic and optimal adolescent development".

She said YDS is a convergence effort for junior and senior high school students to address the challenges faced by Filipino adolescents amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

The agency, she said, is committed to the YDS as one of the strategies in reducing the school dropout of Pantawid children and decreasing the number of children who are not attending school.

"Aside from Bata Balik Eskwela campaigns, we will implement the YDS to help the 4Ps households comply with the program conditionality, especially on education," Sayson said.

Although YDS attendance is not a condition in the education grant, she said the monthly session is an additional service of the 4Ps-related programs for the high school students.

The session service for the youth is anchored on 4P's human development investment program that targets specifically the adolescent development covering themselves to family, peers, and community.

Sayson said topics tackled during sessions deal with adolescent dynamics, sexuality, career skills and other stuff designed to mold a better person in the family and the community.

The sessions also seek to address teenage pregnancy, reproductive health, peer pressure, dangerous drugs, pornography, decision-making and other issues that affect the youths, she said.

She added the program contributes to the goal that all children are in school, eventually graduate and have gainful employment or businesses to reduce intergenerational poverty.

The pilot areas include the towns of Compostela, San Remigio, Sogod, Tabogon, Barili, and Liloan in Cebu.

The agency partners with the Department of Education, Commission on Population and Development, Department of Agriculture, National Youth Commission, World Vision, Jesus Christ the Rock of Refuge Foundation Inc., among others. (PNA)

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