A quarter billion pesos will be spent by the government next year to hold 2,000 kindergarten classes for five year olds in poor municipalities across the country, the chair of the House appropriations committee said.
"This is the first step in making pre-school education universal,’’ Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. said.
At present , public preschools are run by the Department of Social Welfare and Development and local governments.
The
R250-million fund for early child education is however the first of its kind to be included in the Department of Education budget.
Both the DepEd and Cabinet requested that amount.
"This is the breaking-in period so to speak. We are piloting this program, to test the readiness of the system. We have to do it gradually because it is not easy to fold in 3 million students to the public school system," Andaya said.
"But the government is committed to a Head Start program because prepping up 5 and 6-year olds is one way of improving school performance and retention," Andaya said.
He said President Arroyo has issued an order making pre-school universal before she bows out of her term in 2010.
Andaya explained that the DepEd decided on holding kindergarten classes in 4th to 6th class towns because "of the correlation between poverty and school performance."
"These are the areas where there are no hole-in-the-wall preschools that charge like British boarding schools," he said. "At present , preschool is seen as a luxury . We want to erase that. We’re slowly expanding the program so that one day public kindergartens will be open to all," he said.
Asked how much a full nationwide preschool program would cost, Andaya said: "Much. We’re taking of millions of kids here. It will be in the billions of pesos. But I think it’s worth spending. Human capital investment is something we should never scrimp on."
