DepEd to put up 10T pre-schools nationwide

Despite problems with the national budget, the Department of Education plans to put up 10,000 pre-schools and hire an undisclosed number of guidance counselors starting next school year under its pre-school service contracting program.

The program is an alternative delivery system to provide preschool education to prospective Grade I enrollees throughout the country through contracting.

Preschool classes are organized in the 5th- and 6th-class municipalities and urban poor areas, and are provided preschool experiences for 6 months by private preschool providers.

In the pre-school program, Deped will need at least 10,000 classrooms and an equal number of teachers noting that 6,000 classrooms alone will cost about P3 billion.

The DepEd currently operates less than 1,000 kindergartens nationwide.

Deped Secretary Jesli Lapus said that the high dropout rates in Grades 1, 2 and 3 is apparently due to, among others, lack of government intervention in students’ nutrition, health and values during their early childhood years.

The DepEd is also checking out an undisclosed number of private pre-schools nationwide that are operating without the necessary agency permits.

Lapus has repeatedly asked the owners and operators of such schools to “secure permits to avoid problems in their operations.”

“We need to ensure fair and equal opportunity to all private pre-schools to deliver quality education in accordance with the department’s mission and vision,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lapus stressed the need for guidance counselors, saying “each individual student needs to be guided on his or her career pathway.”

“It doesn’t have to be one per high school. We can start with clustering,” Lapus noted.

He said DepEd has been considering tapping Australian aid for international development as the program’s funding source.

With a P145-billion allocation, the department tops the proposed P1.22-trillion national government budget for 2008.

The funding is P3.6 billion higher than its budget in 2007.

In 2008, DepEd plans to spend P5.7 billion on new classrooms and P1.38 billion for the initial salary of 10,000 additional teachers and 1,661 principals.  —Jasmin R. Uy/BRP