DepEd to make kindergarten priority

WITH the recent increase in its budget, the Department of Education (DepEd) said it would focus its attention and resources on pursuing priority projects and developing the kindergarten program for 5-year olds in preparation for the upcoming school year. Education Secretary Armin Luistro said the approval of the P207-billion budget of the department next year—the largest in the bureaucracy—would give them more time to focus on projects aimed towards improving the delivery and quality of basic education in the country.

“Yes, DepEd is getting the 207 billion budget for 2011. This represents the biggest increase in years in our annual budget at close to 19 percent compared with last year’s,” Luistro said.

The Education chief added that with the increase, the department could also implement the universal public kindergarten program for 5-year olds in 2011 as part of the Aquino administration’s effort to fulfill the Education For All goals, and as part of the Enhanced K+12 program unveiled last October.

“For the first quarter of 2011, we will focus on providing for universal kindergarten facilities for 5-year olds.
I am confident that we will be able to do that especially with the help of many committed stakeholders,” Luistro added.

However, 79 percent of the 2011 funding would go to personnel services including the salaries of almost half a million public school teachers and the 50,000 nonteaching staff nationwide.

Earlier, Luistro encouraged parents to pre-register their children in the kindergarten program this January to avoid the usual enrolment rush in May and June. He said this is part of the on-going campaign of the department to bring all school-aged children to school.

“A good headstart will give our young learners the boost to embrace learning and finish schooling,” Luistro added.

Some 880,000 students were enrolled in public preschool programs this year, which makes up roughly 80 percent of the target population.

The department is currently doing the groundwork on the 12-year basic education cycle, which begins with a strengthened kindergarten program. The proposal to add two more years in basic education is aimed at producing high-school graduates who are better prepared for the world of work, self-starting ventures or college studies.

Despite the increase in funding, Luistro admitted the need to tap the private sector and other community stakeholders to upgrade the quality of the public school system and free more resources to address the gap in such areas as classrooms, textbooks, computers and teachers.

“We realize that we would need to firm up more partnerships with the private sector and work on other creative modes to catch up with decades of neglect in providing essential learning inputs especially teacher items and classrooms,” he pointed out.

About P12.5 billion of DepEd’s 2011 budget will be allocated for infrastructure development— including the construction of 14, 000 new classrooms, which is less than 10 percent of the current needs.–MARIA NIKKA U. GARRIGA, Manila Times