SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian on Saturday urged the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to come up with a program that will professionalize barangay workers, including day care workers and teachers.

Gatchalian cited the examples of the Barangay Health Services and Community Nutrition Services program, both of which are National Certificate (NC) II courses.

“My suggestion is to come up with a program and let’s expand it to some of the barangay-based workers, including day care teachers and the other barangay employees. Ngayon kasi meron na tayo for barangay health workers and barangay nutrition scholars,” said Gatchalian.

“Our day care workers are not certified. They are trained through practice. A lot of them do not have stability of tenure, but they’ve been there for years. ‘Yung iba sa kanila andyan na for 30, 40 years and they want to be professionalized. At least let’s give them a chance to be recognized and certified,” Gatchalian added.

The chairperson of the Senate Committee on Basic Education has been pushing for the professionalization of child development workers and teachers.

Under the Basic Education and Early Childhood Education Alignment Act or Senate Bill No. 2029, Gatchalian proposed that cities and municipalities shall be mandated to create plantilla positions for CDTs and CDWs.

The proposed measure also mandates local government units to promote and encourage their professional development.

The Basic Education and Early Childhood Education Alignment Act mandates the Early Childhood Care and Development Council to ensure the alignment between the ECCD curriculum and the basic education curriculum.

It also imposes greater responsibilities on LGUs on the implementation of ECCD programs.

Data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development shows that there are 78,693 CDWs in the country.