CEDAW/C/PHL/Q/7-8/Add.1 H. Education 11. Updated information and disaggregated data on the situation of education for women and girls in the State Party 11.1 The table below shows the comparative number of boys and girls availing basic education. More boys start but girls tend to stay longer in both elementary and secondary levels. Table 5 Basic Education SY 2014-2014 Enrolment (E) Rate Kindergarten Total (TE) Female (FE) (F) % Male (ME) (M) % 1 812 960 883 131 48.71 929 829 51.29 Elementary 14 453 060 6 904 847 47.77 7 548 213 52.22 Secondary 7 314 740 3 683 576 50.36 3 631 164 49.64 Table 6 Cohort Survival (CS) Rate Total (TCS) (TCS/TE) % Female (FCS) (FCS/FE) % Male (MCS) (MCS/ME)% Elementary 13 199 980 91.33 6 475 366 93.78 6 725 458 89.10 Secondary 5 896 412 80.61 3 215 762 87.3 2 693 597 74.18 Access to education for women and girls, including disparity in access between urban and rural areas 11.2 Boys and girls have equal access to education but urban areas have higher density of schools and facilities than the rural areas. To address the imbalance, alternative education is available in rural areas. For instance, R.A. 10 168 mandates the establishment of rural farm schools as alternative delivery mode of secondary education to address the needs of children in rural, agricultural or fishing communities. DepED also implements the Alternative Learning System (ALS) to expand the chances of drops out to return to school. ALS has basic literacy program and a continuing education program-accreditation and equivalency. Learning can take place anytime, anyplace depending on the convenience and availability of learners. Enrolment and retention rates of women and girls at all levels of education and areas of study 11.3 Data below show that there are more females than males in tertiary education. More males than females are enrolled in Science, Technology, Engineering, Agriculture and Mathematics (STEAM) courses, while more female than males are enrolled in non-STEAM courses. 16-06662 15/33