THE community daycare center has done wonders for her kindergarten-age daughter, Zia, said 36-year-old Cindy Prache of Lope de Vega, Northern Samar.

"Zia can now recognize letters and has also started to draw and scribble. I complement what she learns at the daycare center with additional learning exercises at home. I am very satisfied with how her teachers conduct lessons, and I am very grateful to them because I can see that they are doing their best to prepare my daughter and her classmates for elementary education," Prache said.

Not all daycare-age schoolchildren are learning in centers, though. In the Philippines, many children are not participating in early learning. Around 78 percent of 3- to 4-year-olds are not attending early learning programs.

In the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), 90 percent of children do not have access to early childhood education.

According to the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Council Information System, 3,658 barangay are still without any early learning facilities such as child development centers, national CDCs, and supervised neighborhood playgroups as of August 2019.

"Children have the right to quality pre-primary education, which is the foundation of a child's journey. Every stage of education that follows relies on its success. If we fail to provide quality early childhood education, we limit the future prospects of individual children, as well as the country's human capital needed to reduce inequalities and promote peaceful, prosperous societies," United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) ECD specialist Psyche Vetta Olayvar said.

Competency-based sessions

Empowering and enhancing the capacity of daycare teachers is just one aspect of improving early childhood education in the Philippines.

Zia's teachers, Marivic Sardeña and Angie Catunhay, are part of the child development workers (CDWs) in Samar who are benefiting from competency-based capacity-building sessions established by Unicef with the University of the Philippines Center for Women's Studies Foundation Inc. (UPCWSFI), the Provincial Government of Northern Samar, the Municipal Government of Lope de Vega, and Northwest Samar State University (NWSSU). Sardeña serves as Catunhay's mentor in this program.

With the ECCD Council, UPCWSFI and local educational institutions, Unicef is modeling a system for competency-based professional development, retention, compensation and hiring of CDWs in 11 municipalities and two cities.

The system started with self-assessments of the competencies of select CDWs, and local government units (LGUs) have supported this initiative by funding the competency enhancement of more than half of their CDWs.

Despite the dedication and hard work of CDWs, most lack job security. According to data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), only 11 percent of CDWs nationwide hold permanent positions.

Considering the crucial role CDWs play in facilitating a smooth transition from early learning and development to formal education, this issue hampers the sustainable learning and development of young children.

"Replacing CDWs after local elections has always been the norm. This practice is very counterproductive because it ultimately wastes years of experience and training. The most affected are the children, as it compromises the quality of learning. There should be a resolution to make CDWs permanent," Sardeña said.

"In addition to job security, we also need support from the barangay and the local government units to improve our learning centers, allocate more budget for instructional materials so that we won't have to use our meager honorarium, and undergo further upskilling," she added.

Upskilling a collective goal for CDWs

Over 80 kilometers away in Pagsanghan, Samar, Aileen Licame, who was among the first CDWs capacitated by Unicef, UPCWSFI and NWSSU, is now sharing everything she learned with as many CDWs as possible.

As the ECCD focal person of Pagsanghan, she continues to mentor fellow CDWs in their municipality and has also been tapped by other LGUs as a resource person for Peiridddec, which means prevention, early identification, referral and intervention of delays, disorders, and disabilities in early childhood.

"I have been motivated by Unicef's support, and I am happy that I am able to share what I have learned with fellow CDWs. I am even happier to see improvements in the performances of CDWs here in Pagsanghan. I just hope that efforts to strengthen the retention of CDWs and allocate more budget for ECCD will yield positive results so that more young children will be given quality foundational education," Licame said.

While the three women share the same sentiments on the tenure of CDWs, Claudette Cabinalan, the Municipal Social Work and Development officer of Tarangnan, Samar, is doing her part to ensure that the CDWs under her supervision receive the right support.

"Aside from the yearly budget for enhancing their capacities, we have also crafted and submitted a three-year plan that includes an advocacy strategy aimed at educating our community members on the importance of ECCD," Cabinalan shared.

"Our municipality has also recently passed an ordinance on the adoption of the national system of the ECCD program. We have also established an association for CDWs and are now formulating bylaws related to their benefits, privileges and tenure. So far, our mayor has been supportive of this initiative. Our goal now is to put it into writing and ensure its passage as another ordinance by early next year," she elaborated.

Support for CDWs contributes to better learning for children

With improved and sustained foundational and developmental skills, literacy and numeracy proficiencies will most likely increase. In parallel, it is high time ECCD is viewed as a crucial step toward holistic and effective learning. This is something that Prache supports as a parent who has witnessed how daycare has tremendously helped her daughter, Zia.

"I really hope more parents bring their young children to daycare centers because it's very important for children to be well-prepared before entering elementary school. The children are the ones who bear the consequences when they lack essential foundational skills," she said.

International Day of Education is an annual international observance day held on January 24.

Dan Ramirez is Unicef Philippines' communication officer.