Senate bill filed to improve access, quality of early childhood education

MANILA, Philippines — Despite a law that requires local government units to provide children with early education before entering kindergarten, a senator said that the provisions of these services remain uneven across different localities.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian filed a bill on Saturday that aims to address this by increasing the number of child development centers, which are upgraded daycare centers that also addresses the needs of malnourished children and children from indigent families. 

Senate Bill 2029 aims to give children aged 0 to 4 years old a headstart by teaching them basic skills needed for when they enter formal schooling under the K to 12 Basic Education curriculum.

It also aims to fill the gaps of  Republic Act No. 10410 or the Early Years Act of 2013 – the implementation of which has been rocky and “inequitable,” Gatchalian said, due to the varying “quality of service on the financial and budget framework, resources, and political will” of LGUs.  

The Early Years Act of 2013 mandates the availability of child development or day care services at the local level, the budget allocation of which comes from LGUs' special education fund and gender development fund, among others. 

The bill aims to address these issues by requiring LGUs to establish or convert existing daycare centers to child development centers.

The proposed measure also requires every city or municipality to maintain at least one national child development center.

This is to ensure that children who enter Kindergarten have been taught the necessary skills and essential learning competencies by aligning the early childhood curriculum with the K to 12 Basic Education curriculum, according to Gatchalian.

Just 11% of young children given headstart to kindergarten

According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), latest data in 2023 show that only 11% of the estimated population of children aged 0 to 4 years old or 1.2 million were enrolled in child development centers in 2021. In 2023, the DSWD estimated that the country has around 65,000 child development centers.

According to the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics's 2019 assessment of Filipino students, Grade 5 students who attended an early childhood education program performed better across the board in reading, writing and mathematics tests.

Those who did not enter primary education before age six were found to have performed "significantly" worse in reading, writing and mathematics than those who joined at the right age, the assessment also found.

Children enrolled in any kind of early education program were also more likely to proceed to preschool by six years old, the assessment showed.