Local Literature

History of Preschool in the Philippines In 1924, the opening of kindergarten education at Harris Memorial School Manila (Harris Memorial College) pioneered preschool education, under directorship of Miss Mary A. Evans. A class was established by Mrs. Brigida Fernando after her training at Columbia University Teachers College. Interest in kindergarten movement was picked up by other private schools and grew succeedingly well among the religious schools both Catholic and Protestant, similar interest motivated civic groups to help children. In 1935, the NATIONAL FEDERATION OF WOMENS CLUB( NFWC) became the forerunner of nursery education. The process of getting government recognition didnt come after 16 years. In 1940, The Bureau of Private Schools had authorized 129 kindergarten classes getting an enrolment of 6,449. The World War II disrupted the growth of the program to the point of closing almost all schools. The year immediately ensuing liberation had demonstrated a renewed interest in preschool education. Out 129 government recognized kindergarten schools in 1940, a total of 61 schools with 3,172 enrolment started in operation in 1945-1946. Private individuals had shortly joined this bold start. The NFWC continued to have its nursery classes one in Sampaloc and in Tondo Manila. In 1948, HARRIS MEMORIAL SCHOOL initiated another big step by obtaining a government recognition to confer the degree of JUNIOR TEACHERS CERTIFICATE to Graduate in kindergarten education. Early Childhood Education Concerns:

The growth of Philippine preschool education had been so slow when this is compared to those of the other countries

Though slow, the regular yearly increment in kindergarten enrolment in both private and public schools had increased

The major portion of preschool children were consistently in the private schools with its yearly increase remaining constant

Until that there are too many children for every teacher. Sending pre-school aged children to private kindergarten is expensive The need for nursery schools that could cater to the lower income families was then felt

Despite the rapid growth of the Philippines as a developing country, there are a number of both rural and urban areas needing educational assistance for Filipino children. There are, however, a number of foundations and non-government organizations implementing programs to reach out to them.

Some programs focus on the underprivileged while others focus on those affected by natural disasters. Some focus on victims of armed conflict within the country. Most projects are sponsored by international groups and institutions, while a significant few come from local government agencies and private companies.

Early Steps to School Success Save the Children's early childhood program project offers impoverished families a continuum of health, psychosocial care and early learning services for children from birth to age eight. Early Steps provides them with the basic developmental skills for early childhood development in preparation for their grade school education. Save the Children implements child-focused education, health and emergency preparedness and response programs. According to its website, only one in five children ages three to five has access to daycare or preschool services. And since such can only be afforded by upper middle class Filipino families, they implement sponsorship programs to disadvantaged communities in the capital city of Manila and municipalities in Western Visayas and South Central Mindanao. Early Childhood Development Project The Bureau of Elementary Education, a government arm of the Philippines' Department of Education (DepEd), provides the Early Childhood Development Project (ECDP) under the Multigrade Program in Philippine Education (MPPE).

The project is co-implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Health (DoH). It features integrated services to address the needs of disadvantaged children under six years of age. The government appoints an early childhood development official in every city to coordinate and supervise the program. The DepEd also collaborates with the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) to refine the program's frameworks and standards. It mandates improved access to quality childhood education by opening complete multi-grade classes, improving substandard schools in far-flung

barangays and raising funds for instructional materials, training and other community support schemes. Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation - Integrated Development Center Keeping up with the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to achieve quality education in the world by the year 2015, the Karl Kbel Stiftung fr Familie und Kind (KKS) supports poverty-stricken children through specific early childhood education projects in 30 villages of Agusan del Sur, Philippines. This province, a place with many separatist conflicts, is one of the most underdeveloped regions in southern Philippines. The KKS local partner. Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation - Integrated Development Center (JPIC-IDC), provides access to quality preschool education for 2,100 school children and 700 families in the region. And to ensure this, teachers are regularly provided with professional training. The Importance of Early Childhood Education

Early Childhood Education (ECE) (sometimes called early childhood care and educationECCE) refers to the education that children obtain during early stages of their childhood. Early childhood is a crucial time period for the development of the mental functions of children. This development, including the emergence of the abilities and skills in areas such as language, motor skills, psychosocial cognitive and learning, is now known to be greatly influenced by exogenous factors, including the nature of the educational environment to which the child is exposed during the first 6 to 8 years of life (Bowman, Donovan and Burns, 2001).

It has been shown that ECE can be a major input into a child's formal education. A number of studies link ECE to increases in school readiness for primary school, and it has been shown that school readiness is an important predictor of early school achievement (Forget-Dubois et al 2007). One review of 36 studies of ECE effectiveness in small-scale demonstration and largescale public programseach study comparing participants with a control group of nonparticipantsfinds "overwhelming evidence that ECCE can produce sizable improvements in school success." (Barnett 1995, pg. 40)

Further, early gains in school readiness due to early childhood education have been shown to have enormous positive economic and social impacts lasting well into adulthood, from higher educational attainment and less chance of involvement in criminal activity, to higher status employment and higher earnings (Schweinhart 2007; Sparling, Ramey and Ramey 2007).

James Heckman, Nobel laureate in economics from the University of Chicago, reviewed the literature and found that the long-term, economic return on investment in high-quality ECE programs is more than 8 to 1 (Heckman 2000). Summarizing the few longitudinal studies and many short-term studies of ECE interventions, Heckman argues the important lesson to take away from successful early childhood interventions is that social skills and motivation are a young child's most easily life-altered attributes, even more so than IQ. Further, social skills and motivation have large impacts on school performance. In his view, a student with strong social skills and motivation tends to acquire a higher level of education. Then, with all three attributes (social skills, motivation and education), the individual becomes highly valuable in the work place.

Heckman concludes, "We cannot afford to postpone investing in children until they become adults, nor can we wait until they reach school agea time when it may be too late to intervene. Learning is a dynamic process and is most effective when it begins at a young age and continues through to adulthood." (Heckman 2000, pg. 50)

The Components of Good Early Childhood Education

While parental and family care is an important component of ECE development, we are primarily concerned with the educational component since it is here that policy (and society) is able to play the most proactive role. So what is known in the literature about creating a good ECE program? A good quality ECE program should be a multi-dimensional educational program with a focus on the holistic development of children in the early stages of their childhood. One of ECE's goals is to enable children to be "more ready" for primary school education. A good ECE program should have the following characteristics:

it should be built around a good learning environment with an effective, well-thought out curriculum;

it should begin at an appropriate starting age; it should be provided in a physical space that is safe and one that has certain specialized facilities;

it should be given by professional care givers, attentive to the individualized needs and progress of the child,

and, if possible, it should include the involvement of parents.

"While no single curriculum or pedagogical approach can be identified as best, children who attend well-planned, high-quality ECE programs in which the curriculum aims are specified and integrated across domains tend to learn more and are better prepared to master the complex demands of formal schooling." (Bowman, Donovan and Burns 2001, p. 7-8)