MANY parents have mixed feelings about the first day of class—they are excited about the things their children will learn in school but dread leaving their kids in the company of near-strangers. What parents don’t know is that their children are just as scared and excited about their first day in school. Studies show that almost 2 out of every 10 children who enter grade 1 drop out of school before the end the year, with drop out rates higher among children who have not undergone early learning programs.
Because of this, the newly-formed Early Childhood Care and Development Council, in partnership with the Metro Manila chapter of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), will launch on Monday an eight-week school readiness class for children who are about to enter grade 1 in June. The program will be pilot-tested in key areas all over Metro Manila.
In a press statement, the ECCDC cited most children who have not undergone early childhood care and development are unprepared for school.
This is one of the issues that the ECCDC and the law that supports its creation—Republic Act 8980 or the ECCD Act—seeks to address, the agency said.
Two separate reports by the World Bank (WB), one in 1997 and the other in 2006, point out the positive effects of early childhood development (ECD) on children who are about to enter school (grade 1).
The 1997 report—based on documents prepared by the then Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS)—notes that there was a high dropout rate in grades 1 and 2 in 1995, prior to the implementation of an experimental ECD. These dropouts accounted for 60 percent of total primary school dropouts at that time.
National achievement tests conducted at that time also revealed that the earlier grade levels performed 50 percent below the norm.
The WB noted that in poor areas where children do not attend pre-school, there was an 18-percent dropout rate, compared to only 12 percent among those who were able to go through pre-school sessions.
After a six-week summer pre-school program, the DECS found that the dropout rate among beneficiary-children was only one percent, compared to 15 percent for those who did not attend the summer class.
The 2006 WB policy research working paper on ECD in the Philippines reinforced the earlier report.
“We find significant positive intent-to-treat impacts on the majority of the indicators of child development that we consider—particularly those related to child cognitive, social, motor skills and language development, as well as short-term nutritional status,” the WB paper said. The paper evaluated the Philippine ECD program in the 1990s that included immunization, nutrition and day care for children age 3 to 5 years old, among others.
The class will also impart to children the importance of proper nutrition and the role that parents play as their kids’ first teachers.
“Children aged zero to five are in the vital years of learning. At this stage, they are most receptive to learning, whether it is about nurturing or the values that will serve them well later in their lives,” ECCDC said. (30)
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