Personal and Professional Profile of Teachers and Cohort Survival Rate of Kindergarten Pupils

Abstract

The universal primary education is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) established by the United Nations (UN), to which the Philippines, as a member state, has pledged its support. The Philippines, similar to many other nations, acknowledges that a well-educated populace can yield substantial long-term economic and social benefits, such as enhanced productivity, innovation, and increased civic engagement and participation in governmental programs (Albert et al., 2023). Consequently, the 2023-2028 Philippine Development Plan emphasizes the importance of improving education and promoting lifelong learning as a crucial component of the country’s medium-term strategy for human and social development (NEDA PDP, n.d.). This plan aspires to create a society where Filipinos are intelligent and innovative, with significantly reduced learning poverty and widespread access to high-quality lifelong learning opportunities.
With this growing awareness of the need for Early Childhood Education and Development, the Philippines has put a lot of importance to basic education and developed comprehensive reforms in the country’s educational system. Among these is the institutionalization of kindergarten through RA 10157 which is known as the Kindergarten Education Act of 2012, wherein Kindergarten was made as the compulsory and mandatory entry stage to education. This, as the country’s Department of Education believed that the age of five (5) was the transition period from informal to formal literacy (Grades 1-12) considering that such age was within the critical years where positive experiences must be nurtured to ensure school readiness (DepEd, n.d.). This opened up the opportunity for the Filipino kindergarten learner and teacher to be put up front and centre.