SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian was alarmed by the reduction of the budget for the Early Childhood Care and Development Council, warming that it will have dire consequences on young learners and their long-term development.

For Fiscal Year 2022, the ECCD Council, an attached agency of the Department of Education, received an allocation of P71.9 million, 59 percent lower than its P173.5 million budget for 2021.

Of all the DepEd agencies, the ECCD Council will have the largest budget cut.

While Gatchalian supports an increased budget for the ECCD Council, he urged the agency to improve its utilization of funds, noting that among DepEd’s attached agencies, the ECCD Council has the lowest obligation rate at 33 percent.

In 2019, the ECCD Council’s unused appropriations amounted to P53 million.

This ballooned to P330 million in 2020.

“Mahalagang matutukan natin ang pag-aaral ng mga bata sa murang edad dahil ito ang magsisilbing pundasyon ng kanilang pagkatuto. Naging hadlang ang pandemya sa paghahatid ng serbisyong may kinalaman sa early childhood care and development, kaya naman sa halip na bawasan natin ang pondo para rito, tulungan nating makabangon at makahabol ang mga ECCD service providers at kanilang mga mag-aaral,” Gatchalian said.

The senator cited a World Bank policy note in 2020 which warned of the negative impact of the Covid19 pandemic and school closures on early childhood education and foundational learning in primary school.

The World Bank noted that the development of literacy and numeracy between the ages zero and eight lays the foundations on which all future learning rests.

“The agency’s performance missed the target last year in terms of NCDCs established and the number of Day Care Centers converted to Child Development Centers,” Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture, said.

He noted that the low obligation rate could be due to the ECCD Council’s inability to utilize its budget to construct the targeted 108 National Child Development Centers but only 32 NCDCs were built.

Under Republic Act 10410 or the Early Years Act of 2013, the ECCD Council is responsible for implementing the National ECCD System, which covers the full range of health, nutrition, early education, and social services development programs for the basic holistic needs of young children aged zero to four.

The ECCD Council’s functions also include the development of a national system for early identification, screening, and surveillance of young children aged zero to four.