President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has approved a P700 million fund for child development centers (CDCs) in resource-limited 4th and 5th class municipalities.
The funding, requested by early childhood development advocates, aims to provide low-income barangays with access to early education development initiatives.
“Gawin na natin ito. I am thinking the daycare centers can also be CDCs. Ganoon na rin ‘yun eh. You have the same kind of training for the people. The kids are there,” Marcos Jr. said during a sectoral meeting in Malacañang with the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) and other agencies.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) committed to financing CDCs this year through the Local Government Support Fund (LGSF).
Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara emphasized that setting up CDCs is a cost-effective and vital investment in the education sector. Despite a 1990 law mandating one CDC per barangay, 5,800 barangays still lack these centers, with 229 in low-income local government units (LGUs).
The Early Years Act of 2013 requires LGUs to fund CDCs, but many 4th and 5th class municipalities lack the resources. EDCOM 2, in collaboration with the Commission on Higher Education, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the ECCD Council, plans to increase the number of early childhood education graduates in underserved regions.
EDCOM 2’s strategy focuses on strengthening early childhood education, nutrition, and foundational literacy and numeracy.
“By fixing the foundations – nutrition, early childhood education, literacy and numeracy by Grade 3 – we will ensure that our reforms are strategic, targeted, and enduring,” said EDCOM 2 Executive Director Dr. Karol Mark Yee.IMT
