Pre-School Education Of Today’s Children
My wife and I are taking care of our four-year old only grandchild (apo) and part of the responsibility is her early schooling. At her early age now, she would be on her second year of pre-school this coming June. Pre-school education is intended for a child under the age at which compulsory education begins. There is no specified age when a child should have pre-school education but many of today’s children enroll in nursery schools as early as the age of three.
In the Philippines, compulsory education used to be for seven-year old children but beginning this school year (2011-12), the formal elementary education will begin at six (6) years of age. During my time, we start going to school after reaching the age of seven and except for the non-formal teaching by some parents, most of us enter Grade One without knowing anything. The same is still true for the majority of today’s children entering our public elementary schools for the first time.
The lucky children of families who can afford to pay for their pre-school education would have 2 to 3 years of learning reading, writing and mathematics before getting their formal elementary education in private schools. Their undue advantage over those who study in the public school system is prevalent in third-world countries. Except for a few exceptions, statistics show that only a small percentage of children who did not get pre-school education get to finish their college education. It’s unfair but that’s how life goes for today’s child in a poor country like ours.
so true. poor kids will suffer from this. i remember a few years back when UP raised tuition fees to more than a 100%, some kids had to go back to their provinces (they were already in manila when UP announced the tuition increase) because they can’t afford the very high tuition fee.
poor people remain poor in this country, but those who strive really hard succeed naman, the rich become more and more rich
Money spent in education is an investment. Most parents understand this but I wonder if government also understand it.
I also feels the same way. while the parents struggling to send their children to the school the government are not doing anything to support the foundation of the little kids.
Actually, the main reason because rich are richer and the poor are poorer is because of how a person thinks. The poor just try to make their ends meet, and never realize that proper education for children is so important. As a result, their children also starts thinking the same way their parents do, and the cycle is repeated over and over again until some children breaks the cycle. I don’t think mere pre-schooling is the key factor that the kids got smart over those who never got preschooling. I’ve seen parents who’ve nurtured their children without sending them to pre-school, yet they’re so advanced that they’d beat any preschoolers.