CEDAW/C/PHI/5-6 281. The Philippine government has likewise ensured that women’s rights in securing travel documents, specifically, the passport, are upheld. Guidelines on issuance of passports to women as stipulated in the Philippine Passport Act of 1996 do not require that women seek the consent of their husbands for their application for said document. The guidelines, contained in the 2000 Handbook for Filipinos Overseas, only require submission of pertinent documents to establish the civil or marital status of women applicants. C. REMAINING CHALLENGES AND DIFFICULTIES 282. To ascertain the efficient implementation of the laws and guidelines on non-discrimination in acquisition, retention of nationality, monitoring mechanisms need to be installed to track violations and cases. Article 10 Education Equality in education; career and vocational guidance at all levels; access to the same curricula; elimination of stereotypes; scholarship opportunities; access to continuing education; reduction in female drop out rates; sports and physical education opportunity; access to health information including family planning A. WOMEN’S SITUATION Literacy 283. Education is a basic right of every Filipino. The government provides free public education for all at the elementary and secondary level and subsidizes tertiary level and technical/ vocational education through the state colleges and universities in provinces and cities around the country. In 1997, 92 percent of elementary schools were run by the state, but this proportion dropped to 89 percent in 2000-2001 onwards, as more private schools opened. At the secondary level, government schools accounted for about 59 percent. The government offers scholarship opportunities to financially deserving students who wish to pursue higher education. Through the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), it provides scholarships and loan grants to poor but deserving students, both in government and private higher education institutions. 284. In 2000, simple literacy rates (pertaining to the ability to read and write a simple message in any language) for women and men 10 years old or older are almost equal at 92.3 percent and 92.0 percent, respectively, or a gender gap of 0.3 percentage point (NSO 2003h). What is troubling is that between the census years 1990 and 2000, literacy rate declined from 93.7 percent for the males and 93.4 percent for the females. This came after the dramatic rise in literacy rate by over 17 percentage points for the two groups between 1980 and 1990. This could mean a combination of poor quality of education, which plagues the Philippine education sector (ADB/WB 1999, Illo 2002a), and the effect of the crisis that saw the withdrawal from or delayed entry of young children to school. 81