989 Ilocos villages have no elementary schools

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union – A study conducted by the Dept. of Education Ilocos Region revealed out of 3,267 villages in the region, 30 percent remain without any public schools.
    This constitutes 989 villages without an elementary school, while 564 have a secondary school. The study also showed that more than 60,000 out of 1.3 million enrolled learners came from these villages without schools.
    The Education department said there should be at least one elementary school for every village and at least one high school for every municipality or city. But this was not the case in the Ilocos Region.
    "With limited access to school, learners go to nearby villages to enroll but eventually drop out due to transportation costs and allowance, while others decide not to go to school anymore," the DepEd said in a statement.