DepEd wants bill seeking mandatory preschool education certified as urgent

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd) has asked Malacañang to certify as urgent a bill filed in Congress seeking to make pre-school education mandatory in public schools.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said he will lobby for the passage of Senate Bill 2953 or the Governance of the System of Pre-School Education bill as part of DepEd’s serious bid to improve the competency of public school children and the participation level in public schools.

“This bill will greatly increase our students’ readiness for formal schooling. Our pupils’ first school experience should be enjoyable so that this positive experience will motivate them to remain in school and complete their education,” Lapus said.

DepEd has slated the conduct of free six-week pre-school classes this summer to serve as “pocket” pre-school education for thousands of incoming grade 1 pupils in public schools this June.

With the passage of SB 2953, pre-school education will be institutionalized in the DepEd’s basic education program.

DepEd’s proposed quality pre-school education involves the adoption of a standard curriculum, a training and hiring program for pre-school day care teachers’ development, a nutrition and health program for students, construction of classrooms, and the distribution of learning supplements to students.

Aside from the move to introduce mandatory preschool education, Lapus said DepEd has adopted other strategies to encourage public school children to stay in school.

“We are strictly enforcing the ‘no collection policy’ and ‘no mandatory uniform policy.’ We’re also implementing the allocation of cash subsidy for selected poor but deserving students,” he said.

The aim of the bill is to expand quality pre-school education in all public elementary schools for students aged five years and above.

SB 2953 is pending in the Senate’s Committee on Education, Arts, and Culture for committee report, while its House counterpart, House Bill 5496, has been approved on third reading.

It is estimated that a total of 1.4 million pre-school students are already benefiting from the program.

In a related development, the DepEd will start teaching disaster risk reduction in public and private high schools to help make the Philippines prepared for disaster. –Rainier Allan Ronda (The Philippine Star)