A summary of the progress and challenges of early childhood governance in the country is presented in Table 1 to show that for each victory, there are corresponding challenges that must be addressed. These are interrelated issues that ECCD governance has faced since the adoption of the ECCD 10 years ago. Therefore, early childhood care and education focuses on the social, emotional, cognitive and physical needs of the child for a solid foundation for lifelong learning and well-being. ECCD is a shared responsibility: the establishment of the ECCD system is a joint task of different stakeholders to ensure the rights and full development of children aged 0-6 years. The roles and relationships of ECCD actors at multiple levels are clearly defined, i.e. Families, Communities, Non-Governmental/Private Sector, Local Government Units and National Government Agencies. The “child-friendly bike” in Figure 2 illustrates the ECCD well as a collective responsibility, with the child at the centre of the wheel, in line with the child`s ecological perspective in the context of his or her family, community and society. This means putting the child at the centre of the ECCD agenda while empowering and/or influencing the environment in which children live and grow. In early 2009, two presidential publications on politics Footnote 2 changed the landscape of early childhood governance at the national level. The two decrees were published in January 2009 and June 2009 respectively: (1) E.O. No. 778 “Transforming the Child Welfare Board (CCA) into the Council for Early Childhood Care and Development” has a clear focus on early childhood (0-6) and abolished the ACC as the mandated ECCD National Coordinating Council, creating a new body, the Council for Early Childhood Care and Development, as the lead agency of the CCSD (0-6); and (2) Presidential Decree No. 806 “Reaffirming the roles of the Council for Early Childhood Care and Development and the Child Welfare Board”, which confirms the existence and role of two separate and distinct councils that oversee the concerns of children.
ECCD programs and services in the Philippines are not new. Health, nutrition, early childhood education and psychosocial care, parental education and other social services for children aged 0-6 years and their families were the concerns of the government, which were introduced in its various specialized departments. New and promising is the announcement of a national ECCD policy framework, which, among other things, provides the institutional structures at all levels for the implementation of the national ECCD policy. The WFD Act is a very important policy step in providing mechanisms for the integration and harmonization of WFD multisectoral initiatives. This document provides an overview of the current state of ECCD governance, particularly at the national level. CWC., & UNICEF. (2008). Review of Early Childhood Care and Development Policy in the Philippines.
Unpublished manuscript. As part of the ECCD Council: Led by President Teresa Aquino Oreta, the Council defined its dual objective – to strengthen the centre-based ECCD and to model/scale ECCD at home to improve access to high-quality ECCD for children aged 0-6 years. In line with these guidelines and its policy-making and norm-setting role, the Council has made remarkable progress since it began its work in early 2009. As noted in the CEDC Council`s January 2009 to June 2010 Performance Report, the following findings include: (1) Pilot testing of the 6-week Summer ECE program for children entering Grade 1 without prior experience of ECE in the National Capital Region and who are following the performance of these children in Grade 1. The results were compared favourably with those of other children who attended regular ECE programmes in day-care centres and nursery schools; DepED recognized the importance of the pilot program by organizing its own 6-week summer preschool program nationwide from April to May 2010. (2) State of the Art Review of Child Care in the Philippines: A SurveyNote 11, the first comprehensive review of child care since its inception in 1964, conducted in collaboration with the DSWD and LGUs. (3) The ECCD at Home Demonstration ProjectFootnote 12 was conducted to test the feasibility of the program as a centre-based parallel program to THE DCS to improve access to ECCD services for children aged 0 to 6 years; (4) the development of a national framework for early learning; (5) Triennial performance monitoring of children participating in the 6-week DepEd summer preschool program, starting with SY 2010-2011 to SY 2012-2013 in partnership with DepED; (6) the development of the ECCD management information system and the national database on the resources of the ECCD; and (7) the formulation of the WFD Strategic Plan for the period 2011-2016. The challenges facing Filipino children today are related to poor health and nutrition, limited early education and/or lack of adequate psychosocial care and stimulation, inadequate protection and, more recently, climate change. These main threats to the optimal well-being of young children have implications for ensuring the child`s right to survival, development and protection. The problems are closely linked and underline the urgent need for intensive and integrated efforts to ensure optimal child development (0-6). Office of the President (2010). Proposal for an implementing regulation on the delegation of the National Coordinating Council for Early Childhood Care and Development (NECCDC) to the Council for the Welfare of the Child (CAC).
Philippines: Author. Establishment of the national ECCD system: The law provides that the State shall establish and institutionalize a national ECCD system that: (1) in a comprehensive manner, a holistic approach that addresses the development of the child as a whole – physical, social, emotional, mental and spiritual); (2) inclusive, a system that promotes the provision of complementary health, nutrition, early childhood education, social protection and other social services to children aged 0-6 years and their families; (3) sustainable, the system is the collective property of local government, community and families; and (4) involves intersectoral and inter-agency cooperation at the national and local levels among different stakeholders. Local Government Units (LGUs) are primarily responsible for the implementation of the national ECCD programme by providing basic eccD public services; Support the organization of parent cooperatives to initiate the implementation of ECCD programs; ensure that service providers of public ELD programmes are fairly remunerated under their supervision, that adequate resources are made available and that their working conditions are conducive to compliance with national quality standards; and the provision of matching funds for education and training of ECCD service providers and support for the activities of ECCD coordinating committees for provinces, cities and barangays. They are also directly responsible for the management and operation of daycares. A model learning system consisting of five (5) cycles of educational development proposed in 2004 by the National Commission of the Philippine Board of Education. The project mobilized front-line health workers at the barangay level who were trained to facilitate parent education sessions and play groups for children. The project served as a springboard for the development of the national implementation plan for ECCD at Home Base as a guide for possible scaling-up. Early childhood education is a time when children begin to learn basic skills, social and emotional skills, develop their interests, and build a relationship between their parents, peers, and teachers. This is their foundation and the basis of their future development. About 46 per cent are children under the age of 18; Children from 0 to 6 years old represent about 18% of the total population.
In 2000, the population of children aged 0-6 years was 13.5 million children; By 2010, this number is expected to reach 17.2 million children, 3.6 million more children (0-6 years) than in 2000 (ONS). The magnitude and increase of this age group suggests a high dependency quotient and would involve significant additional resources needed to meet basic needs such as food, health care and education.