Aumentado bill seeks P100M Kindergarten budg

kindergarten classroom

By Marlon Balmadrid    

QUEZON CITY. - Rep. Erico B. Aumentado has filed House Bill No. 6367 which seeks to appropriate the amount of Php100,000,000 to the kindergarten education program of the Department of Education. 

The amount is intended to be used for the construction of kindergarten classrooms and sanitation facilities, acquisition of teaching equipment and hiring of qualified teachers in public schools. 

Aumentado filed the bill after discovering that RA No.10157, The Kindergarten Education Act, which made kindergarten an integral part of the basic education system in the Philippines, does not carry an appropriate budget to support the program.

The solon anchored his measure on section 5, paragraph 5, Article 14 of the 1987 Constitution that provides: “ The State shall assign the highest budgetary priority to education and ensure teaching will attract and retain its rightful share of the best available talents through adequate remuneration and other means of job satisfaction and fulfillment.”

The Kindergarten Education Act provides equal opportunities for all children to avail of accessible mandatory and compulsory kindergarten education, it also effectively promotes physical, social, intellectual, emotional, and skills simulation and values formation which are designed to sufficiently prepare the young children for formal education. 

Under the present condition of our public education, however, the effective implementation of the law would be difficult without the necessary funding support Aumentado reiterated.  He also noted that the public school system faces recurring problems such as the shortages in classrooms, inadequate school facilities and lack of textbooks and qualified teachers. 

Aumentado believes that there is a need to remedy these problems now, otherwise, without these educational provisions and resources, the objective of the law to provide quality kindergarten education will be defeated.

In his explanatory note, the solon stressed that the funding required under this bill will complement the public kindergarten program and will facilitate the effective implementation of the law in the entire archipelago.

Meanwhile, Rep. Erico B. Aumentado was among the ten solons cited by the Philippine Star for filing the most number of bills in the 1st and 2nd regular sessions of the 15th Congress. 

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. and Rep. Rufus Rodriguez (Cagayan De Oro City) lead with the most number of national and local bills filed.

Aumentado was credited with 72 vital national and local bills, and Rep Eduardo Gullas (Cebu) with 71 bills.

In another development, Aumentado filed 4 national bills under the 3rd regular session of the 15th congress, including the measure appropriating P100m for the kindergarten program of the Department of Education.