Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista is backing an ordinance enhancing the barangay day-care center program.
He approved City Ordinance 268 or the Barangay Day Care Center Enhancement Program of Quezon City to ensure children four years old and younger would be ready to enter the formal learning system that begins at kindergarten.
Under the measure, the city government would provide the pupils with school and physical education uniforms, workbooks and textbooks, school bags and school supplies, school shoes, raincoats and boots, and rewritable pads.
Bautista said hygiene kits, educational toy box, manuals and other miscellaneous needs shall also be given to the children.
The city shall promote and maintain equality of access to education and the basic educational materials given to the barangay day-care students to help the child’s learning capacity, personal and social interaction to grow and develop when they reach five.
“While parents have the primary responsibility to provide for their children’s physical, emotional, psychological, mental and social needs, barangay day-care service aims to supplement the inability of some parents to provide their children with the proper care and home environment,” District 4 Councilor Raquel Malangen said.
The Liga ng mga Barangay shall implement the ordinance, while the city’s social services development department would serve as the secretariat and supervising agency.