Solon bats for more budget for DepEd’s ECCD Council
SENATOR Win Gatchalian sounded the alarm on the budget cut to the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Council and its consequences to young learners and their long-term development.
For fiscal year 2022, the ECCD Council, an attached agency of the Department of Education (DepEd), is allocated P71.9 million, 59 percent lower than its P173.5 million-budget for 2021. Among DepEd’s attached agencies, the ECCD Council will have the largest budget cut.
While Gatchalian supports an increased budget for the ECCD Council, he also urged the agency to improve its utilization of funds, noting that among DepEd’s attached agencies, the ECCD Council has the lowest obligation rate at 33 percent.
In 2019, the ECCD Council’s unused appropriations amounted to P53 million. For 2020, the year the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the agency’s unused appropriations ballooned to P330 million.
“Mahalagang matutukan natin ang pag-aaral ng mga bata sa murang edad dahil ito ang magsisilbing pundasyon ng kanilang pagkatuto. Naging hadlang ang pandemya sa paghahatid ng serbisyong may kinalaman sa early childhood care and development, kaya naman sa halip na bawasan natin ang pondo para rito, tulungan nating makabangon at makahabol ang mga ECCD service providers at kanilang mga mag-aaral,” said Gatchalian.
The senator cited a World Bank policy note in 2020 which warned of the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and school closures on early childhood education and foundational learning in primary school.
The World Bank noted that the development of literacy and numeracy between the ages zero to eight lays the foundations on which all future learning rests.
“The agency’s performance missed the target last year in terms of NCDCs established and the number of Day Care Centers converted to CDC (Child Development Centers),” said Gatchalian, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture.
He also noted that the low obligation rate could be due to the ECCD Council’s inability to utilize its budget to construct the targeted 108 National Child Development Centers (NCDC). Only 32 NCDCs were built.
Under Republic Act No. 10410 or the Early Years Act of 2013, the ECCD Council is responsible for implementing the National ECCD System, which covers the full range of health, nutrition, early education, and social services development programs for the basic holistic needs of young children aged zero to four.
The ECCD Council’s functions also include the development of a national system for early identification, screening and surveillance of young children aged zero to four.
