Hardship Index (HI) refers to any number from 0 to 1 representing the degree of the hardship of a particular school combining all the variables identified as hardship factors: time and cost of transportation from school to Schools Division Office (SDO), human violence, availability of temporary learning spaces, level of poverty, and availability of basic amenities (e.g. telecommunication, water, and electricity services). The closer the value of the index to 1, the higher the degree of difficulty of the school situation.