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2/F Reyes Bldg.
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3 in every 7 Antiqueño Children of Secondary School Age are not in School Only 28 thousand out of 50 thousand children in Antique aged 12-15 years were attending school. This was one of the facts on the state of women and children in Antique revealed by the 2007 Sub-Regional Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (2007 SR-MICS) conducted by the National Statistics Office last year with a financial support from the UNICEF. Children of elementary school age, on the other hand, had a net attendance ratio of 1:4 wherein 1 in every 4 children was not in school. Antique’s early childhood education for five years old children registered an impressive 70 percent attendance rate. Of 124,000 children aged 5-14 years in Antique, 7.9 percent or 10,000 were found to be engaged in child labour. 7.8 percent of children from this age bracket who were attending school were, at the same time, also engaged in child labour. The survey also revealed that many mothers were not following the recommended exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of the child’s life. 8 percent or 1,144 of these infants were not breastfed. Only 25 percent of infants aged 0-3 months were breastfed and lesser for 0-5 months old infants with 18 percent of them. 73.5 percent of all children aged 12-23 months had received BCG-Measles vaccinations. 70 percent of children aged 2-3 years were reported to have received antihelminthics or deworming medicines in the past six months before the survey. 47 percent of mothers who gave birth in the last 12 months and their children were protected against tetanus. In antenatal care, 97.5 percent of 24,000 women aged 15-49 in Antique who gave birth in the two years preceding the survey had pre-natal check-up. 85. 9 percent of them received it from skilled personnel (doctor, nurse, midwife). In water and sanitation, 9.6 percent or 53,000 household population in Antique do not have access to improved sources of drinking water and 11 percent or 60,000 household population in Antique do not have access to sanitary means of excreta disposal. Although 11 percent of the 130,000 women aged 15-49 do not know of any children’s right, 59.4 percent or 77,000 women are able to name at least three rights. It also turned out that the least-known children’s right to them were the right to be able to express the child’s view (15 percent) and the right to be defended and given assistance by the government (3 percent). Antique Population Surpasses .5 Million Mark The final result of the latest Census of Population (POPCEN 2007) conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) placed the Antique population at 515,265 persons as of August 1, 2007 or an average annual population growth rate of 1.19 percent from year 2000 count of 472,822 persons. The registered growth rate is lower than that of 1995-2000 annual population growth rate of 1.97 percent. The capital municipality of San Jose had the largest population with 54,871. The neighboring municipalities of Sibalom and Hamtic followed with 53,934 and 42,375, respectively. The northern municipality of Culasi came fourth with 37,100. The combined population of these four municipalities comprised more than one-third (37%) of the provincial population. Only the municipalities of Libertad and Belison had less than 15,000 population with 14,653 and 12,467, respectively. Under existing laws, a congressional district could be carved out of a contiguous area which has a population of at least 250,000. Based on this, the province is eligible to have one additional district. The Philippine population was counted at 88.57 million with an annual population growth rate of 2.04 percent– the lowest recorded for the Philippines since the 1960s. NSO
conducted the census last year pursuant to Batas Pambansa Blg. 72 and
Commonwealth Act 591. 286 field workers were deployed in
Antique and about 40,000 in the entire country to visit every single
household for listing and population count. |
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