Bloggers once again met with Assistant Secretary Tonisito M.C. Umali to address more
questions about the Universal Kindergarten for the school year 2011 to 2012. With this DepEd conducted a pre-registration for the pre-schoolers and an estimate of 1 million have registered. According to Assec. Umali, the country expects to have 1.9 M enrollees this school year. That means, more classrooms, teachers and materials are needed to address potential needs arising from this.
questions about the Universal Kindergarten for the school year 2011 to 2012. With this DepEd conducted a pre-registration for the pre-schoolers and an estimate of 1 million have registered. According to Assec. Umali, the country expects to have 1.9 M enrollees this school year. That means, more classrooms, teachers and materials are needed to address potential needs arising from this.
According to DepEd's Order regarding Universal Kindergarten, "Batas Pambansa Blg. 232 or the Education Act of 1982 defines Elementary Education as the first stage of compulsory, formal education and usual corresponding to six or seven grades, including preschool. Likewise, Section 4(b) of Republic Act No. 9155 or the Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001 defines Basic Education as the education to meet basic learning needs, which lay the foundation on which subsequent learning can be based. It encompasses early childhood, elementary, and secondary education as well as alternative learning systems for out-of-school youths and adult learners and includes education for those with special needs.
This is in line with meeting the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for Education which also fall under the Education for All (EFA) objectives, where education is a must and should be free.
Increasing evidences in the importance of Kinder level as it is commonly known are ever present in the early-childhood development. Children begin kindergarten at the age of five. However, many parents are starting to question the importance of kindergarten and whether their children even need to go. One reason is the families' budget. Even a certain question was raised by Renz, a blogger, about how expensive it is to send kids to preschools in private schools.
At this point, DepEd would truly agree with me as I give out certain importance of why children have to undergo Kindergarten, either in public or private schools. You don't need to have an 18 units of Early-childhood Education (ECE) to understand this (in which I'm blessed enough to have).
* Play, comes in, where it is used to motivate kids into learning. Playing is the best way to learn social skills and self-control—which just might result in kids deciding that they really like going to school. DepEd's Toy Drive Campaign with ABS-CBN is perfect for this.
* Accustomed to School. Kids will have to start attending school on a daily basis until they turn at least 16 years old or 18 years old (that is once K to 12 is implemented), so it is important to go ahead and let them become accustomed to attending school while they are young. Then a half day of school in first grade and beyond wont be such a shock.
* Socialization. Kindergarten prepares children for the following school years because they meet new friends and learn how to communicate. Developing these communication skills early on is important because the sooner children learn how to communicate well the sooner they can do so. When kids are required to share and play nicely with one another they will store that information and it will shape how they treat others for the rest of their lives.
* Learn the Basics. When your child attends kindergarten he will learn the basics. This means the basics in math, science, reading, writing, social studies, and more. You want your child to be prepared for the first grade and beyond and in almost all cases kindergarten accomplishes that. If your child skips kindergarten then he may be prepared for first grade anyway, but he may still be behind. Kindergarten will expose your child to all the things he should know so that by the time he does reach first grade he will be prepared.
All my four children passed it and I am a proud parent of intelligent and disciplined kids who all had fun while learning not only the ABC's of academe but the ABC's of life as well.
The meeting was at Chelsea by the way and I actually have some photos of what we had for snack at the Podium branch.
We, as parents, must go visit and get to know the teachers. They're happy to have us in the classroom, observing and participating in some of the activities.
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