To: Undersecretaries
Assistant Secretaries Bureau Directors
Directors of Services, Centers and Heads of Units Regional Directors
Schools Division/ City Superintendents Heads, Public Elementary Schools

1. The Philippine Education for All (EFA) 2015 Plan of Action cites that attaining success in the first grade encourages children to complete elementary education. This condition supports the findings of worldwide studies, that children exposed to the quality of preschool experiences determine their performance in the higher grades. To yield more EFA benefits, the Department of Education (DepEd), through the Bureau of Elementary Education (BEE) shall continuously expand and intensify the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD)/kindergarten education coverage to all children aged three (3) to five (5) years. This Bureau has implemented the Preschool Program since 1970. However, as of 2010 only 79% of the 2.4 million kindergarten children from both public and private schools had been reached. This shows the low readiness level of Grade I children who are lacking in academic works. Likewise, this reveals prevailing high incidence of non-readers and frustration readers until Grade III.

2. To universalize quality assured kindergarten education and to ensure that all Grade I entrants shall have developed the necessary learning experiences to prepare them for academic works, this Department shall implement the Kindergarten Summer Program (KSP) in all schools for eight-weeks from April 11 to June 3, 2011.

3. Permanent Kindergarten teachers and those who were hired under the DepEd Subsidized Kindergarten Program during the school year shall handle the Kindergarten Summer Classes (KSCs). Enclosure No. 1 contains the breakdown of preschool teacher positions by region and division. A class shall have a minimum of twenty (20) and a maximum of twenty five (25) enrolees. In cases where the prospective enrolees are located in remote barangays, which are four (4) kilometers away from each other, an itinerant teacher (IT) shall be assigned to handle classes in two adjacent barangays, with each class having at least eight (8) enrolees.

4. Permanent Kindergarten teachers who will handle two (2) KSCs shall be paid each an honorarium of Four Thousand Pesos (P4,000.00) per month. The Kindergarten teachers under the DepEd Subsidized Kindergarten Program shall be paid each the amount of Six Thousand Pesos (P6,000.00) per month for two (2) classes. The IT shall be paid an additional One Thousand Pesos (PI,000.00) for transportation expenses. Honoraria of the ITs shall be charged to preschool funds downloaded to all divisionsupon submission of the report on enrolment to BEE on or before March 18, 2011. To facilitate the payment of honoraria and transportation allowance of ITs, the school heads/coordinators of KSP should submit the consolidated report on time. Furthermore, reports of additional classes should be submitted a week before the start of classes; otherwise teachers handling these classes shall not receive their honoraria and transportation allowance.

5. Children qualified to enrol in the KSP shall include those who will be Grade I by June 2011. They must be:

a. five (5) years old and six (6) months in April 2011 without preschool experience; and
b. above five (5) years old and six (6) months but without preschool experience and have not enrolled in Grade I.

6. The detailed mechanics for the KSP implementation is found in Enclosure No. 2.

7. Immediate dissemination of and compliance with this Order is directed.

BR. ARMIN A. LUISTRO, FSC (signed)
Secretary

Ends.:
As stated
Reference:
None
To be indicated in the Perpetual Index under the following subjects:
POLICY
PRESCHOOL EDUCATION
PROGRAM
SCHOOL

DO No. 23, s. 2011