DepEd to hold summer kindergarten program April 11 to June 3

To prepare Filipino children who are about to start Grade I this coming school year, the Department of Education (DepEd) will hold an eight-week kindergarten summer program (KSP) from April 11 to June 3. In DepEd Order No. 23, the DepEd decreed that the KSP will be held in all schools nationwide. The program will cater to prospective Grade 1 entrants without preschool experience as of June 2011. These children should be at least five years and six months of age as of April 2011. “When young children are better prepared on the ways of school life, they develop a positive attitude in schooling. Thus, they value learning more, strive to excel and are more likely to finish basic education. This is what we want our young children to develop – value for education – through KSP," said Education Secretary Armin Luistro, in a news release posted on the DepEd website. Under the KSP, permanent Kindergarten teachers and those who were hired under the DepEd Subsidized Kindergarten Program during the school year will handle the Kindergarten Summer Classes (KSCs). Each class will have between 20 and 25 enrollees. In cases where the prospective enrollees are located in remote barangays, which are four kilometers away from each other, an itinerant teacher (IT) shall be assigned to handle classes in two adjacent barangays. Each class in such a situation will have at least eight enrollees. Education for all Through the KSP program, the DepEd aims to strengthen its campaign towards achieving its "Education For All (EFA)" goal by catering to children who will be in Grade I by June 2011. The DepEd's EFA 2015 Plan of Action cites that attaining success in the first grade encourages children to complete elementary education. According to the DepEd, studies have shown that early schooling positively affects students’ completion of elementary and secondary education. "This condition supports the findings of worldwide studies, that, children exposed to the quality of preschool experiences determine their performance in the higher grades," the DepEd said. To yield more EFA benefits, the DepEd's Bureau of Elementary Education (BEE) continuously expands and intensifies the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) kindergarten education coverage to all children aged three to five years. BEE has been implementing the Preschool Program since 1970. However, as of 2010, only 79 percent of the 2.4 million kindergarten children from both public and private schools had been reached by the program The DepEd said this shows the low readiness level of Grade I children and the high incidence of non-readers and dropouts prevailing until Grade III. “DepEd recognizes all these. That is why as far as our EFA goal is concerned, we are serious in the implementation of the universal public kindergarten program for five-year olds and this KSP for new Grade I entrants," Luistro said. Advocacy forum Luistro directed all schools to conduct an advocacy forum or meetings with the local government units (LGUs) and parents to orient them on the importance of the program and thus draw-in community support. They shall also prepare the Kindergarten classroom to ensure a child-friendly, safe, and motivating learning environment by seeking support from the local government and other stakeholders in making the learning environment as attractive, conducive, and effective as possible for children to gain an optimum summer kindergarten experience. All implementing schools shall use the enriched Eight-week Kindergarten Summer Program curriculum. The kindergarten instructional materials – manipulative toys, songs in CD format, big books and storybooks distributed by the BEE shall be used. Schools will have authority to seek support from the local government unit (LGU) in augmenting the existing instructional materials and/or equipment. “As the 2015 deadline draws nearer, a lot of challenging tasks still need to be addressed. What is important is that we are anchored on the right direction in meeting our commitment," said Luistro. – VVP, GMA News