MANILA, Philippines--The Department of Education (DepEd) is planning to have at least 53 percent of all five-year-olds in preschool this year in an effort to improve the achievement levels of Filipino students, according to Secretary Jesli Lapus.
Lapus said the DepEd was allocating P1.8 billion for the preschool program this year to accommodate an estimated 900,000 enrollees. Children four years old and under are covered by the Daycare program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
“We believe that a good pre-elementary preparation is necessary for children to acquire sound learning skills. For this reason, we intend to get all five-year-olds to attend preschool,” Lapus said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
“In 2010, we are looking at having 53 percent (about 900,000) of all five-year-olds in school and 95 percent of them completing preschool at the end of the school year,” he said.
Lapus said the preschool participation rate of five-year-old Filipinos increased slightly from 49 percent in 2008 to 51 percent last year.
The DepEd is trying to improve the quality of preschool education in the country after its Readiness Assessment Test of first-grade pupils in 2008 showed that 58 percent were “unprepared” for elementary school. There were around 1.6 million first graders then in Metro Manila. Philip C. Tubeza
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