Samar, Philippines

VIII. SOCIAL SERVICES

The newly renovated Samar provincial Hospital.

A. Education

A.1 Schools

The Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS), Division of Samar has under its direct supervision 688 public elementary schools in 27 school districts and 53 public secondary schools.  For Calbayog City Division, it has under its supervision 157 elementary schools in seven (7) districts and nine (9) secondary schools.

State-administered secondary level training is available from a vocational school the Wright Vocational School; 3 agricultural schools: Samar National Agricultural School (SNAS), West Coast Agricultural School, Basey National Agricultural School (BNAS); 2 Fishery Schools, the Samar Regional Institute of Fishery and Clarencio Calagos Memorial School of Fisheries; and, 2 State Colleges, the Samar State University and Tiburcio Tancinco Memorial Institute of Science and Technology.

A. 2 Enrollment

The Samar State University is the only university in the province

As of school year 2000-2001, DECS, Samar Division recorded a total of 87,691 enrollees for public elementary schools, of which 65,780 pupils were primary grades and 21,911 pupils were intermediate grades.  For the public secondary schools it recorded a total of 23,449 enrollees.

On the other hand, cohort survival rate in the elementary level for SY 1998-1999 and SY 2000-2001 were 72.12 percent and 75.03 percent, respectively.  This indicates that there was an increasing number of grade one pupils who actually reached sixth grade.  For the secondary level, the cohort survival rate for SY 2000-2001 was 64.67 percent.  This was 16.63 percent lower than in SY 1999-2000, which indicates that there was a decline in the number of first year students who reached fourth year.

Retention rate of 90.05 percent for the elementary level in SY 2000-2001 was 4.22 percent lower than in SY 1999-2000.  This indicates that there was a decrease in the elementary pupils who are in school.  For the secondary level, the retention rate for SY 1999-2000 and SY 2000-2001 were 83.95 percent and 83.29 percent, respectively.  There was a slight decrease (0.66%) in the number of secondary students who are in school.

  Table 7.   Enrollment by Level the Last Three School Year

There was a slight decrease in the drop-out rate from 1.70 percent for SY 1998-1999 down to 1.50 percent for SY 2000-2001, for the elementary level.  As for the secondary level there was also a decrease from 9.78 percent to 9.58 percent for SY 1998-1999 and SY 2000-2001 respectively.

A.3 Performance Indicator

The participation rate for the elementary level in SY 1999-2000 to SY 2000-2001 was maintained at 98.39 percent.  In the secondary level, participation rate of 97.05 percent was also maintained for SY 1999-2000 to SY 2000-2001.  However, this is 1.62 percent higher compared to SY 1998-1999, which was 95.43 percent.

A.4 Teacher-Pupil Ratio

For SY 2000-2001, the teacher-pupil ratio in the elementary level was 1:31 and in the secondary level for the same school year was 1:33.  The Samar Division still lacks about 400 teachers and 250 teachers for elementary and secondary levels to meet the standard ratio 1:25 for elementary and secondary levels.

A.5 Physical Facilities

The total number of elementary school buildings for SY 2000-2001 was 1,404 with a total of 3,155 rooms.  While in the secondary it has a total of 175 school buildings and 478 classrooms.  The Samar Division still lacks more buildings for the elementary and secondary levels to meet ratio of 1 room per 25 pupils/students.

A.6 Textbook Ratio

For SY 2000-2001, the textbook-pupil ratio was 1:3 (one set of textbooks per three pupils).  For the textbook-student ratio it was 1:4 (one set of textbooks per four students).  This ratio is very much below the standard ratio of 1:1.

B. Health and Nutrition

B.1 Health Facilities

The province of Samar has one Provincial Hospital with a 100-bed capacity, 3 districts hospitals, (one with a 75-bed capacity, the other 2 with 25-bed capacity), and a municipal hospital with 10-bed capacity, for a total of 5 government hospitals and a 235-bed total capacity.  The hospital bed ratio is 1:2,514 population.  There are also 30 Rural Health Units located in poblacions with a 1:21,371 population ratio.  There are also 105 barangay health stations manned by a midwife providing services to a cluster barangays whose ratio is 1:6,106 population (see table below).

A nurse and a midwife were assigned to the island town of Almagro to assist the health problems of its inhabitants wherein its community hospital was no longer in operation due to lack of funds and a physician. The provincial and district hospitals are the central referral centers of the clustered Rural Health Units (RHU) and Barangay Health Stations (BHS).

B.2 Health Manpower

The number of medical/health personnel has been inadequate compared to the demand of the increasing population every year and the absence of some medical equipments in almost all hospitals in the province of Samar. As a result, there is a big manpower population ratio. For the city of Catbalogan alone, the hospital manpower ratio is 1:419 (419 persons for every 1 medical/health hospital worker).

There are 50 government-employed physicians, 21 which are municipal health officers.  The physician-to-population ratio was 1:10,685; 107 nurses (32 are public health nurses), 1:5,009; 119 midwives, 1:4,714; 14 dentists, 1:45,795; 32 sanitary inspectors, 1:14,247; 12 medical technologists (6 are field medical technologists), 1:53,427; 6 nutritionists, 1:106,854; 6 pharmacists, 1:106,854 and 1 sanitary engineer, 1:641,124 population.

B.3 Health Statistics

The total births in year 2000 were 11,826, which were higher than in 1999, recorded at 11,754.  The rate of 23.33/100,000 population within the 2-year period was the same.

Of the total births (11,826) 89 percent (10,505) were delivered at home attended by field midwives, nurses or trained hilots.  The reported deaths have increased from 1,461 in 1999 to 1,518 in 2000, and the rate also increased from 2.94 in 1999 to 3.00/100,000 population in 2000.

The two leading causes of infant mortality were pneumonia (41) and diarrhea (16) with rate of 3.63 and 1.43 per 1,000 live births respectively.  These were also the two leading causes of infant mortality in the past five years.

For maternal mortality, its three leading causes for the same year (2000) were placenta retention at 2.00 per 1,000 live births, hypertension in pregnancy (0.41), and hemorrhage secondary to abortion (0.2).

The two leading causes of mortality were pneumonia (223) and cardiovascular diseases (201).  Pneumonia (9,624) was still the leading cause of morbidity for the same year (2000) followed with diarrhea (8,012) and the third was bronchitis (4,336).

Table 8.  Ten Leading Causes of Mortality (all causes) CY 2000

In 1995, out of the 13,261 eligible children, 78.25 percent were fully immunized, and for measles was 78.49 percent.  For tetanus toxoid, the eligible population was 15,073 with 48.96 percent immunized.  In 1997, fully immunized children were 86.33 percent and for tetanus toxoid it was 53.65 percent.

B.4 Nutrition Statistics

In 1995, the prevalence rate for Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM) was 24 percent or 24 out of 100 preschoolers.  Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD) among preschoolers (1-4 years old) was 8.1 percent and for Iron Deficiency Anemia was 18.6 percent.  In 1995, 22 percent or 22 out of 100 school children are suffering from Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM).  Iodine Deficiency Disorder (IDD) is 27.7 percent among school children specifically grades I and II wherein almost one third (1/3) were found to have goiter.

Among pregnant mothers in 1995, 30 percent were high-risk pregnancy associated with malnutrition.  Three out of ten or 30 percent of the 15-40 years old women have goiter.  In 1993, the prevalence rate of anemia among pregnant women was 17.9 percent; likewise, the problem was evident among lactating mothers.  In 1995, 4.4 percent of 0-11 months infants were found to be suffering from malnutrition and 24 percent were low birth weight infants.

The 9-11 months old children eligible population was 14,318 and about 66.02 percent or 9,453 was given vitamin A supplement.  Among the 12-59 months old children, 58,894 (100.03%) were given vitamin A supplement.  For postpartum mothers, 8,286 or 57.87 percent were also given vitamin A supplement.  Among pregnant women 58.27 percent or 9,736 out of 16,707 eligible population were given complete Iron dosage.  Among the 15-40 years old women, 52,144 (52.81%) out of 98,745 eligible women were given iodine supplement.

In 2004, the 22,394 (29.5%) pre-school children weighed were found to be under normal weight (low and very low) which was slightly greater than in 2003 (28.9%). Likewise, those in the above normal weight increased by 1.9% from 3,160 (4.3%) in 2003 to 4,684 (6.2%) pre-schoolers in 2004. The normal weight children remained below 50% share of the total weighed children within the two year period (see table below).

In the elementary level, below normal body weight shared 21.58% of the total pupils weighed (60,898), in which the Grade 1 pupils registered the highest number. Above normal weight totaled 3,545 pupils (5.82%), while 44,209 or 72.6% represent the normal weight pupils (refer to table below).

Reports on Family Planning Program (see table below) have shown reduction in the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) especially the pill, which has been the most preferred method by most women (19,155 in 2003 down to 5,671 in 2004) for current and continuing users. This could be attributed to the insufficient and irregular supply of contraceptive, non-implementation of modern NFP method. Non-working mothers prefer Lactational Amelorrhea Method (LAM) especially in rural areas. Support from NGOs and private organizations have contributed in making FP services accessible.

Households with sanitary toilets have reached to 59.19%, a minimal increase of 2.66% from CY 2002 (see table below). The support from NGOs and LGUs in the construction of water and sanitary facilities were instrumental in achieving the goal of the program. However, this is still a big health problem in which these households resort to other means of waste disposal that may cause diseases.

C. Housing

C.1 Number

The province has a total of 100,484 occupied housing units in 1990 for 102,038 households giving a ratio at 1.015 households per housing unit.  The ratio for 531,903 household population per housing units was 5.293.

C.2 Type, Condition and Year Built

Large proportions of the housing units built of cogon, nipa or anahaw both for roofing (75.77%) and for outer walls (55.10%).  However, the proportion of housing units that do not need repair, or if at all a minor one only is relatively high at 64.34 percent.  On the other hand, majority (67.69%) of the housing units was built after 1980 and mostly of the occupied housing units (97.76%) were single houses.

C.3 Occupancy

About 56.08 percent of the total occupied housing units were with 4 to 7 occupants.  About 98.67 percent of the total occupied housing units were with one household.

C.4 Ownership

Of the 102,038 households in the province, 90.0 percent own their housing units, 46.1 percent of that also own the lot where the unit is constructed.  Among those who own their housing units, 96.6 percent constructed their houses from their own resources; 0.4 percent with funds from government financing schemes; and, 2.4 percent through private persons.

C.5 Floor Area

Census results show that three-fourths of the housing units (74.1 percent) in Samar are with limited floor area of less than 30 square meters.  About 17.6 percent measure 30-69 square meters, while 8.4 percent are spacious units (70 square meters and over).

C.6 Low-Cost Projects

Listed below are some of the low-cost housing projects in Catbalogan.  Some of these projects have already started while some others are still in the planning process.

D. Public Safety

D.1 Crime Rate

Crime volume as of 2000 recorded a total of 697.  Most of the crimes committed were those crimes versus persons that may constitute 90 percent of the total cases.  The crime solution efficiency rate for the period was 98.8 percent.

D.2 Population- Policeman Ratio

The province, as of 2000 has a total strength of 700 policemen.  From 1997, twenty-four (24) policemen have been added for the year 2000.  Population-policeman ratio was 1:916.

D.3 Population- Fireman Ratio

In the year 2000, there was an additional of 20 firemen in the province of Samar, which totaled 129.  This number reduced the population- fireman ratio of 1:5,407 in 1997 to 1:4,970 in the year 2000.

E. Social Welfare

E.1 Services and Clienteles

About 34,648 households (30 percent) out of the 115,493 total number of households in 1995 in the province are in need of the basic social services.

In 1995, there were about 176,811 persons in the province or about 30 percent of the total population, who are in difficult situation.

E.2 Indigent Groups

In 1995, there were about 57,290 persons in the province or 9.72 percent of the total population that belong to the indigent groups.

E.3 Handicaps

In 1995, there were about 7,886 persons in the province or about 1.3 percent of the total population, who were reported to have some type of disability.  The sex ratio of the population with some type of disability was 111 males per 100 females.  Low vision was the most common type of disability in 1995 accounting for 21.62 percent of all persons with disability.  The percentage with low vision was higher among the female population (26.35%) than among the male population (17.36%).  Partial Blindness was the second most common type of disability (12.86%), followed by partial deafness (10.65%), and paralysis of one or both legs (6.49%).

E.4 Assistance Center

The Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office maintains one Crisis Intervention Unit in its office in Catbalogan.

F. Sports and Recreation

For sports and recreation, the province has a provincial stadium, which consists of a track oval, a complementary grandstand and a spectator's gallery.  It also has a provincial gymnasium.  These are all located in Catbalogan.