Educ Res Policy Prac (2006) 5:175–183 DOI 10.1007/s10671-006-9004-8 ORIGINAL PAPER A system within a system: the Philippine schools overseas Czarina Valerie A. Regis · Allan B. de Guzman Accepted: 16 May 2006 / Published online: 9 September 2006 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2006 Abstract The Philippine school system is considered as one of the largest in the world with 41,989 public elementary and secondary schools and 7,790 private schools under the supervision and regulation of the Department of Education [DepEd Fact Sheet, 2005]. On top of this statistics are 40 duly-registered educational institutions called the Philippine Schools Overseas, which operate in nine countries such as Bahrain, China, Greece, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. This paper presents the context and background of the proliferation of Philippine schools, specifically in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. To set the limits of the scope, this paper focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of community schools and privately-owned schools. Finally, the paper offers some vital measures relative to the supervision, standards of and support for Philippine Schools Overseas. Keywords Philippine school overseas · Community school · Privately-owned school · Reintegration Introduction Since 1981, the number of registered Filipino emigrants has grown to 1,238,934 in 2003 (Commission on Filipinos Overseas, n.d.). Among the countries in the world, the United States of America remains as the most popular country of settlement among Filipino expatriates, followed by Canada and Japan. In recent years, market destina- tions of Filipino Overseas Workers (OFWs) have changed. While the Middle East and Asia have remained the major destinations of OFWs, it is surprising to note that the demand has been falling in key markets like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, HongKong, and Taiwan. Despite this sudden shift in market destination, the number of Filipino emigrants in the Middle East which totaled to 285,564 in 2003 (Dacanay & C. V. A. Regis · A. B. de Guzman (B ) Center for Educational Research and Development, Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, Manila 1015, Philippines e-mail: abdeguzman@mnl.ust.edu.ph