EXECUTIVE ORDER NO.

685 EXPANDING 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 Castaeda), 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 DepEds 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 20082009 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 fiveyear 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/churchbased) 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

ContContents of the joint guidelines

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 fiveyear-old children in day care centers and pre-schools to assess childs development

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 III ISSUES AND CONCERNS RECOMMENDATIONS Child Readiness/Pull-out of children Moratorium for this year 2008. Massive (service contracting) information drive to be undertaken Children being served inside the DCCs are before enrollment next year in order pulled out by DepEd Pre-Schools Teachers not to disrupt the session
to meet their given quota of 30 children as basis in receiving their honorarium/salary from DepEd

CARAGA, IVB

DepEd preschool classes also include 3 and Mechanics should be formulated to be used 4 years old because of nursery classes as guide both by the DSWD and DepEd in the implementation of this EO In some barangays DepEd preschool Joint memo (DSWD and DepEd) teachers get the enrolled preschoolers from should be issued to clear the the DCWs even on the months of August implementors on this matter which causes problems in the records and sessions of DCWs

Cont Issues and Concerns gathered from the field

REGION III, NCR ISSUES AND CONCERNS Curriculum
Confusion on the preparation of curriculum plan. DSWD is based on interest, level of the childs competencies. DepEd is more structured

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

IV-A

DCWs will accommodate those below 5 DCW should focus only on one years old and those above 5 years old for program either DCS or DepEd the DCS and DepEd curriculum respectively. curriculum. This is to enable the DCW Thus, there is a need for DCWs to prepare to have focus on her daily program two (2) curriculum plans. Also, they need to prepare two (2) kinds of document required activity as well as the preparation of records and documents related to the for each program. This is a burden on the child part of the DCWs

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 III, IVB ISSUES AND CONCERNS Enrollment vs. Non-enrollment
are to be admitted in Grade 1

RECOMMENDATIONS

DepEd to reiterate and strictly enforce Only children enrolled in DepEd pre-school policy on admission in Grade 1
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

IVA

Accreditation Standards
The 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 IVA ISSUES AND CONCERNS RECOMMENDATIONS Monitoring and Supervision of DCS and Preschool Program The DCW/service provider to have one DCWs would have two supervisors (3-4 and program to focus on so that 5 years old) with different standards and supervision and monitoring is under requirements to comply with one supervisor only Training of DCWs on the Pre-School Conduct of training needs assessment Curriculum 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 compound DepEd to allocate fund for the construction of pre-elementary school DCCs located in school premises converted building
into pre-elementary by DepEd hence ejecting the DCW in-charge

III, CAR

Cont Issues and Concerns gathered from the field

REGION III CARAGA ISSUES AND CONCERNS
Discriminatory remarks by DepEd PreSchool Teachers/Principal to DCWs

RECOMMENDATIONS
Observance of mutual respect to restore harmony

Weak Information Dissemination Massive information drive to all concerned Some DCWs were informed by their P/MLGUs, MSWDOs, Barangay officials, barangay captain that their service ends DCWs and DepEd staff December 2008 because the DepEd teacher Close coordination among DepEd and will handle preschoolers. This will mean savings for the barangay since DCW is paid P/C/MSWDOs by barangays.

IVB, IVA

Subsidy/Hiring of DCWs

Subsidy 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!