A House of Representatives member has proposed a measure that would provide each day care worker in government-sponsored centers a P5,000 allowance for teaching supplies per school year.
Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Brian Raymund Yamsuan filed House Bill (HB) 10224, which recognizes the indispensable role that day care workers play in helping raise Filipino children through early learning experiences and activities.
“Workers in government day care centers (DCCs) and child development centers (CDCs) serve dual roles of being second parents and educators to children in their formative years. They encourage kids to learn and be creative, teach them how to interact with others, and even help with their mealtimes and nap times,” Yamsuan said.
“Unfortunately, they have to make do with low pay and lack of financial support for the expenses they need to carry out these immense responsibilities,” the lawmaker added.
Barangay day care workers receive P500 a month from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), while local government units (LGUs) provide them with a monthly honorarium of at least P1,000.
Yamsuan said that during a meeting with day care workers in his hometown of Parañaque last month, he discovered that among their immediate concerns was their ever-increasing out-of-pocket expenses for learning materials and teaching supplies.
“Our measure aims to address this shortcoming by providing each day care worker in government-sponsored centers with a P5,000-teaching supplies allowance per school year,” Yamsuan said.
HB 10224 or the proposed Care for Child Development and Day Care Workers Act also provides for a system of continuing skills training and knowledge enhancement programs for day care workers to ensure that children in CDCs and DCCs receive quality care and education.
If passed into law, the program would be implemented by the DSWD and the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Council in coordination with the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
The bill also calls for the establishment and maintenance of a unified and regularly updated database of all government-sponsored CDCs and DCCs and their respective workers by the ECCD Council in partnership with LGUs.