PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines  – Close to 180,000 various instructional materials were distributed this School Year (SY) by the Department of Education (DepEd) to priority kindergarten schools in Mindanao’s six regions comprising 53 provincial and city schools divisions.

DepEd Region-9 Director Dr. Walter O. Albos said the distribution of the teaching aids was announced by Education Secretary Armin A. Luistro through DepEd Memorandum No. 116, Series of 2011.

Albos said Luistro’s directive explained that the allocation of the instructional materials is in line with the DepEd’s new policy directions for the “universalization” of Kindergarten Education Program (KEP) for all five-year-old children.

The move is also designed to provide quality kindergarten education services and ultimately improve effectiveness and readiness in preparing the preschool-age children for Grade 1 – not only for formal school work but also for life, Albos added.

Concerned provincial and city schools division superintendents and elementary school principals were directed by Luistro to give priority in the distribution to elementary schools offering the KRP and Kindergarten Volunteer Program (KVP) with classes previously subsidized by the education department.

The DepEd chief, Albos said, enjoined the kindergarten mentors under the KRP and KVP to maximize the utilization of the various packages of print and non-print teaching materials “to ensure creative, interactive, interesting, meaningful and enjoyable activities in the life of the five-year olds” even as he directed regional and division offices to facilitate the distribution of such materials on staggered basis to the priority schools in their respective areas.

Albos noted that the non-print materials include sets of table blocks, counting frames, lacing beads, picture dominoes, langrams and puzzles to be distributed to trained pre-school teachers handling two classes, and those handled by tutors hired by DepEd under the Service Contracting Scheme.

The print materials, Albos said, consist of Readiness Skills Workbooks (RSW) accompanied with Answer Sheets, Standard, and Competencies for five-year-old children for teachers handling both KRP and KVP.

He quoted Luistro as saying that the printed materials for Enhanced Eight-Week and 40-Week Summer Kindergarten Curriculum were provided by the United Nation International Children Education Fund (UNICEF).

In another development, the office of the regional governor in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) located in Cotabato City has intensified its livelihood assistance to poor residents of Basilan.

“We gave them fishing gears so they can fish and earn a living,” ARMM Labor Secretary Myra Alih said.

According to Alih, the outreach program is part of the convergence initiated by the ARMM regional government in cooperation with the provincial government of Basilan.

Alih, who hails from Basilan, said she was directed by ARMM Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo to supervise the distribution of livelihood assistance to fisherfolk and farmers in various Basilan municipalities.

“As alter-ego of Governor Ansaruddin Adiong, we bring government services to the poor people of Basilan,” she said.

Alih and her staff administer the distribution of fishnets, fertilizers and pairs of slippers to public school pupils in the towns of Amaloy, Ungkaya and Pukan.

Sinarimbo explained that the convergence program was envisioned by Adiong to let the people in far-flung areas feel the presence of the regional government and its services.

Along with the staff from the regional government, the officials also worked with the local government units and security officials in areas affected by armed conflict.

About 10 sacks of fertilizers were distributed to the Yakan Rubber Growers Association, and 10 fishing packages were extended to fishermen in the three towns of Basilan.

More than 1,000 pupils from Bato-Bato Elementary School in Akbar, Mahad Colonia Elementary School in Lamitan, Amaloy Ungkaya Pukan Elementary School and Abdulwahab Akbar Islamic Institution received slippers from Alih. (With a report from PNA)