Monday, March 03, 2008 Daycare mentors: Noblest profession's forgotten side By Danilo V. Adoador III
For others, it could have been a thankless job: the pay is extremely meager and there is no security of tenure.
But 59-year-old Paulita Carmona professionally handles the job-and the stress that comes with it-just like any salaried teacher in the country's disarrayed educational system.
She is a Daycare Center Worker (DCW)-a title that comes short of summing up the arduous job of one who provides supplemental parental care and early childhood education to young minds.
Carmona believes that early childhood education in the Philippines is fraught with challenges; mainly that it is not yet fully institutionalized.
The daycare teacher from the Misamis Oriental town of Kinoguitan knows better: she has been in this job for the last 29 years--long before the passage of Republic 6972 that is also known as the "Barangay-Level Total Development and Children Protection Act."
Signed into law in 1990, Section 2 of RA 6972 provides for the establishment of a "day care center in every barangay."
But 17 years into the law has brought nothing close to institutionalizing the country's daycare centers, noted Teddy Sabugaa, Misamis Oriental provincial welfare development officer.
"The daycare system in the country has yet to be fully professionalized. There is also no standardized salary structure for our DCWs at present," Sabugaa said.
According to the data provided by Sabugaa's office, almost half of the 605 DCWs receive between P1,500 to P2,000 in monthly honorarium. Only 40 workers receive over P3,000 a month, and at least 20 get a measly P500 to P1,000 a month.
RA 6972 mandates the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to contribute P500 a month for a Daycare worker's monthly honorarium, while the rest is contributed by the local government.
Already receiving a wage that is 80 to 90 percent lower than what public elementary teachers receive, Sabugaa said DCWs face the constant threat of being fired as their appointments are co-terminus with the term of whoever sits as barangay chairman.
Carmona said this is the common grievance of DCWs like her.
"For love of children, we no longer think of the little honorarium we receive. What we are after is to teach unhindered and free of worries that we get booted out of the job in the next elections, or at the whim of barangay chairmen," she said.
Carmona, who dropped out of college on her 2nd year in an education course, said they also need training and better instructional materials to equip them on their job.
Data from the Provincial Social Welfare Office show that only 264 of the total DCWs are college graduates, who are sure to leave the job upon getting their professional licenses.
At least 180 DCWs have attended college, 136 are high school graduates and another two are graduates of vocational courses.
Sabugaa underscored the need to have well-trained daycare workers, noting that "the first five years of a child's life are the most formative, since this is the time when the human brain develops most rapidly."
A tie-up between the Capitol and Lourdes College, he said, is underway to provide DCWs the necessary teaching skills.
At stake, he said, is the future of over 18,000 daycare pupils enrolled in Misamis Oriental this year.
Sabugaa, however, considers such intervention strategies stopgap measures.
He said the full integration of the pre-school system into the mainstream educational structure of the country remains the way forward.
Because of this, the PSWO official supports the creation of a Magna Carta for Daycare workers, which he said aims to professionalize the daycare system and institute a standardized salary for DCWs.
Sabugaa currently heads the national committee tasked to draft the said Magna Carta, conceived during a recent meeting of Local Social Welfare and Development Officers Inc.--a group composed of government social workers around the country. The Magna Carta is Sabugaa's brainchild.
