For children in the Philippines who are between the ages of 7 and 12, education is compulsory and free.  Although some families send their children to private school, most children attend public school.  The Philippine educational system itself is similar to the American school system, but unlike America which starts school in August or September and goes through May or June, the Philippines starts school in June and ends in March.  The universities follow the June ~ March school year as well, except they follow the system of using semesters (June-October, November-March).

In the schools, English is the main language of instruction, although Filipino and local dialects are sometimes used - particularly in the lower grades.  The literacy rate of the adult population is about 94%.

During the late 1980s, elementary schools enrolled about 9.2 million students.  Secondary schools had some 3.4 million students enroll, while 1.1 million were attending the 162 colleges and universities, both public and private, found in the Philippines.  By the mid-90's. there were about 11.5  million students enrolled in elementary schools with almost 5 million enrolled in secondary schools and about 1.8 million enrolled in universities and colleges.

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