EXECUTIVE ORDER NO.685EXPANDING THE PRESCHOOL COVERAGE

TO INCLUDE CHILDREN IN DAY CARE CENTERS

Joint Implementing Guidelines

Presented by Dir. Ma. Elena S. Caraballo

DEPED Management Committee Meeting

November 21, 2008, Pasig City

Coordination on the formulation of the Guidelines

• EO 685 signed by PGMA on January 10 , 2008

• Put in the Council Board agenda during its January 22, 2008 meeting to clarify implementation concerns

• Council Board tasked CWC Secretariat to convene an Ad Hoc Committee for EO 685 composed of DepEd (Assec. Teresita Inciong as Chair), DSWD (Assec. Florita R. Villar), DOH (Dr. Yolanda Oliveros), NNC (Ex. Dir. Bernardita Flores), DILG (Dir. John Castañeda), and the CB ECCD experts (Ms. Emerita Garon, Dr. Amado Parawan)

Development and approval of the joint guidelines

• February 22, 2008 – Initial meeting of Ad Hoc. Com.; brainstormed on implications and clarified specific provisions of the EO and agreed to draft implementing guidelines

• March 26, 2008 – smaller group (DepEd, DSWD, CWC) was convened and worked on the initial draft of the guidelines

• April 15, 2008 – draft guidelines presented to the Ad Hoc Com for review

• 1st week of May, 2008- draft guidelines cleared with inputs (to be issued as joint DepEd-DSWD guidelines) from DepEd’s legal division

• May 21, 2008- The guidelines entitled “The Joint Implementing Guidelines of Executive Order No. 685 Expanding the Pre-School Coverage to Include Five –Year Old Children Enrolled in Day Care Centers” signed by DepEd Sec.

Jesli Lapus and DSWD Sec. Esperanza Cabral

What the signed joint guidelines provides …

• Expansion coverage for preschool education of the DepEd shall include preschool children enrolled in Day Care Centers (DCCs)

• The expanded preschool program shall be implemented starting SY 2008-2009 initially focusing on the 50% lowest performing schools based on the results of the SY 2006-2007 National Achievement Test

• DCCs shall be activated as a facility for preschool education in barangays only where there are no public preschool classes managed by the DepEd

• In areas where there are existing DCCs & public preschool classes, the five-year old children shall be accommodated by the public preschool. In case the public preschool cannot accommodate all the 5 years old, day care centers shall be activated.

Contents of the joint guidelines…

• In areas where there are no existing facilities (i.e public, private, PTCA funded, LGU initiated, preschool service contracting, NGO/church-based) for 5-year old children, DepEd shall organize preschool classes

• Preschool classes for five-year old children in DCCs shall be segregated from sessions for children aged 3-4 years old. Sessions for the younger age group shall be held in the morning shift; while classes for the 5 years old shall be in the afternoon

• Sessions for the 5-year old children in DCCs shall be handled by barangay day care workers (DCWs) duly accredited by DSWD and trained by DepEd

• DepEd shall provide a continuing professional development program for DCWs to ensure quality pre-school education

• Supervision of the educational programs, curriculum and instruction for the 5-year old children in the DCCs shall be exercised by DepEd through the Regional and Division Education Supervisors in charge of preschool education. LGUs shall continue to exercise the administrative function as provided for under Sec. 7 of RA 8980 of the ECCD Act of 2000

• The existing pre-school curriculum of DepEd for 5-year old children shall be used for the implementation of this EO and shall be enhanced or updated once the early learning development standards (for 0-6) has been adopted by the CWC (also the NECCDCC)

• The ECCD Checklist shall continue to be administered to all five-year-old children in day care centers and pre-schools to assess child’s development

Cont…Contents of the joint guidelines

Cont… Contents of the joint guidelines

• Full-scale implementation of E.O 685 shall be undertaken on an incremental basis starting in SY 2009-2010 until universal pre-school Education coverage is achieved by 2015

• DepEd shall include in its annual general appropriations the necessary funding to sustain the implementation of this EO.

• The DSWD, DOH & NNC shall continue to extend support to LGUs and to the DepEd for additional resources and technical support as provided by the Law.

• LGUs and other agencies concerned and NGOs shall continue to support the implementation of this EO.

• The DepEd as member of the CWC/NECCDCC shall continue to provide the

appropriate data to the NECCDCC as required.

Related updates

• DepEd completed the training of day care workers in barangays where the 50% lowest performing schools are

• More than 1,000 DCWs of the priority barangays were trained

• Other local government units (even those not identified as priority area for the initial implementation) rolled out expansion of preschool education in day care centers

• CWC included training on the preschool education curriculum (for DCWs and new DepEd preschool teachers) as a core competency training funded under the ECCD Law implementation

Dissemination of the EO and Joint Guidelines

Issues and Concerns gathered from the field

• Weak info dissemination drive to make the EO and its Joint Guidelines known

• Varied interpretations of DepEd at the field level – Some areas reported that this year, 5 year old children in their barangays were

neither in DCCs and DepEd preschools– DepEd announced they are getting the five-year old but declined enrolment due to

the issuance of the “no collection” policy from the Central Office

• Lack of clear parameters on the provision “DepEd supervision of educational programs, curriculum and instruction for the 5-year old children in the DCCs”

• EO funds appropriation coverage – inclusive of learning and instructional materials

Cont… Issues and Concerns gathered from the field

• Roll-out plan of DepEd for training of day care workers considering roll-out of EO implementation

• There is a need to clearly define the provision on - “DepEd to provide a continuing professional development program for DCWs”

– Training of day care workers (DCWs) to be accredited by CHED or CSC as training for ladderalization

• Position of DepEd on its service contracting scheme (specially the

October to March scheme) against full scale implementation of the EO

Cont… Issues and Concerns gathered from the field

REGION ISSUES AND CONCERNS RECOMMENDATIONS

III Child Readiness/Pull-out of children (service contracting)Children being served inside the DCCs are pulled out by DepEd Pre-Schools Teachers to meet their given quota of 30 children as basis in receiving their honorarium/salary from DepEd

Moratorium for this year 2008. Massive information drive to be undertaken before enrollment next year in order not to disrupt the session

CARAGA, IVB

DepEd preschool classes also include 3 and 4 years old because of nursery classes

Mechanics should be formulated to be used as guide both by the DSWD and DepEd in the implementation of this EO

In some barangays DepEd preschool teachers get the enrolled preschoolers from the DCWs even on the months of August which causes problems in the records and sessions of DCWs

Joint memo (DSWD and DepEd) should be issued to clear the implementors on this matter

Cont… Issues and Concerns gathered from the field

REGION ISSUES AND CONCERNS RECOMMENDATIONS

III, NCR CurriculumConfusion on the preparation of curriculum plan. DSWD is based on interest, level of the child’s competencies. DepEd is more structured

For CWC to study the method of curriculum planning between DSWD and DepEd

IV-A DCWs will accommodate those below 5 years old and those above 5 years old for the DCS and DepEd curriculum respectively. Thus, there is a need for DCWs to prepare two (2) curriculum plans. Also, they need to prepare two (2) kinds of document required for each program. This is a burden on the part of the DCWs

DCW should focus only on one program either DCS or DepEd curriculum. This is to enable the DCW to have focus on her daily program activity as well as the preparation of records and documents related to the child

DCWs will prepare two curriculum plans and two kinds of document as required for each programs.

Cont… Issues and Concerns gathered from the field

REGION ISSUES AND CONCERNS RECOMMENDATIONS

III, IVB Enrollment vs. Non-enrollmentOnly children enrolled in DepEd pre-school are to be admitted in Grade 1

DepEd to reiterate and strictly enforce policy on admission in Grade 1

IVA Some 6 year old children still attend day care. Most teachers in public school do not accept these children unless they went to day care program because some of these children may not have no knowledge on basic literacy. Thus, DepEd teachers deny enrollment of 6 year-old children

DCWs, through assistance of parents, shall identify DepEd teachers who refused to accept 6 year-olds in Grade 1 and be reported to School Head so that they be given advice or sanctions from authorities. DCWs shall also assess children and refer them to DepEd if the child qualifies to enroll in DepEd curriculum

Accreditation StandardsThe Revised Accreditation Tool for Day Care, Other ECCD Centers and Service Providers (0-5.11 year old children) under AO 29 issued by DSWD is not applicable for children under the preschool program

Develop/Adopt a revised accreditation tool

Cont… Issues and Concerns gathered from the field

REGION ISSUES AND CONCERNS RECOMMENDATIONS

IVA Monitoring and Supervision of DCS and Preschool ProgramDCWs would have two supervisors (3-4 and 5 years old) with different standards and requirements to comply with

The DCW/service provider to have one program to focus on so that supervision and monitoring is under one supervisor only

III, CAR Training of DCWs on the Pre-School Curriculum

Conduct of training needs assessment for DCWs and DCW focal persons by DepEd

All day care workers regardless of educational attainment to be trained.

III Status of DCCs located inside school compoundDCCs located in school premises converted into pre-elementary by DepEd hence ejecting the DCW in-charge

DepEd to allocate fund for the construction of pre-elementary school building

Cont… Issues and Concerns gathered from the field

REGION ISSUES AND CONCERNS RECOMMENDATIONS

III Discriminatory remarks by DepEd Pre-School Teachers/Principal to DCWs

Observance of mutual respect to restore harmony

CARAGA Weak Information DisseminationSome DCWs were informed by their barangay captain that their service ends December 2008 because the DepEd teacher will handle preschoolers. This will mean savings for the barangay since DCW is paid by barangays.

Massive information drive to all concerned P/MLGUs, MSWDOs, Barangay officials, DCWs and DepEd staff 

Close coordination among DepEd and P/C/MSWDOs

IVB, IVA Subsidy/Hiring of DCWsSubsidy for DCWs is very limited considering that they may be handling two programs and two groups of children

DCWs must handle only one curriculum. There should be a DCW assigned to handle exclusively DepEd or DSWD curriculum. In case she will handle both programs, additional honorarium or subsidy should be given by DepEd.

Screening and hiring process of day care workers to be reviewed in anticipationo of the full implementation of the EO

A child cannot wait…

Thank you and mabuhay!