One of the most overlooked barriers to education is not tuition, transportation, or even access to technology. For many parents especially mothers, both professors as well as students, the biggest challenge is finding a safe place for their children while they attend class. This is why the Commission on Higher Education's Project PAG-IBIG deserves recognition. By partnering with 81 state universities and colleges to strengthen and expand child-minding facilities into childcare centers, CHED acknowledges a reality that parents have long faced: pursuing an education or fulfilling their job role becomes infinitely harder when there is no reliable childcare available.
The initiative is a practical response to a persistent problem. Student-parents, solo parents, university employees, and working parents often must choose between their responsibilities to their children and their aspirations for personal and professional growth. Facilities such as the Family Empowerment Center launched by Romblon State University offer a simple but powerful solution. Parents can attend classes, complete requirements, or report for work knowing their children are in a safe and supervised environment nearby.
Yet the value of childcare support should not stop at educational institutions. What is good for universities should also be good for government offices and workplaces. Employees with young children face many of the same challenges as student-parents. Productivity, attendance, and employee well-being can all improve when parents are not constantly worried about childcare arrangements. Offices, particularly those employing large numbers of women and young parents, should explore establishing child-minding centers or childcare facilities as part of their commitment to a family-friendly work environment.
This is why I am pleased to see CHED moving in this direction. The program reinforces a point I raised in an earlier column advocating for child-minding centers. At the time, I argued that childcare should not be treated as a personal concern that parents must solve on their own, but as a social and institutional support that enables people to study, work, and contribute more effectively. The expansion of childcare facilities in universities validates that perspective and demonstrates that such programs are both feasible and beneficial.
Admittedly, I am unlikely to personally enjoy the direct benefits of these facilities, as my children are already beyond the age that would require such services. Nevertheless, public policy should not be measured solely by whether it benefits us individually. The true test is whether it helps those who need it most. Student-parents struggling to complete their degrees, employees balancing work and childcare, and families striving for a better future stand to gain from these initiatives. For that reason alone, childcare while in class, and childcare while at work, is an idea whose time has come.
