Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8) — Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has filed a bill pushing for the establishment of at least one childhood development center (CDC) in each city or municipality nationwide in a bid to improve early childhood education in the country.
In filing Senate Bill No. 2029, Gatchalian wants to bridge the gap between early childhood education and the K-12 program.
“Corollarily, the K to 12 basic education system will suffer if children who enter Kindergarten have not been properly equipped with the necessary skills or taught the essential learning competencies,” the bill read. Under the proposed measure, local government units are mandated to provide the facilities and resources for early childhood and development programs, which includes converting existing daycare centers to CDCs. According to the data by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, there are 65,424 CDCs nationwide as of January 2023. Furthermore, there were 1,260,707 young children enrolled in CDCs during the school year 2021-2022, which was just 11% of the estimated population of children aged 0-4.“Early childhood education, as part of early childhood care and development, is extremely crucial in the development of these young children. Quality ECEd sets a strong foundation for learning,” said Gatchalian. “A study also found that early childhood education and development has an effect on later student performance, where Grade 4 learners who were able to often perform early literacy and numeracy activities with their parents before primary school scored higher in mathematics and science compared to those who were not,” he added.
