NAGA EARLY EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT (NEED)

     The Naga Early Education and Development (NEED) Program is a comprehensive pre-school education program that addresses the need for improved access, equity and quality of education in Naga City, guided by the philosophy of “education for all”.

     The program combines the traditional day care services of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) with modern Montessori-type pre-school education.   It also has a component for children with disabilities.

Objectives

     The NEED Program basically seeks to improve access to quality early education-reinforced day care services for all Nagueño pre-schoolers as early in life as possible, regardless of their family's socioeconomic status.  

     Specifically, 

• it seeks to establish at least one Montessori-type day care center (DCC) in each sitio; 

• equip each center with the minimum trained workers, instructional equipment and learning devices required for its efficient and effective operation; and 

• sustain its existence by tapping and matching resources of the community, specifically the parents, the barangay council, local NGOs and the city government.

Beneficiaries

     NEED's major beneficiaries are primarily the next generation of Nagueños, today’s young generation who are assured of a more solid foundation in quality education.  Their parents, too, benefit from the precious time freed which can be devoted to other productive activities, and from the opportunity for parental advancement made possible under the program. By extension, the local community and the city also benefit for the long term, assured as they are of better prepared future citizens.

Implementation and Partnerships

     The NEED Program is handled by the City Social Welfare & Development Office in cooperation with parents' associations, village councils and non-government organizations. It has assigned persons in charge of monitoring the progress and activities of the DCC situated in the barangays.

• Naga City Montessori System 

As of 2001, the network of barangay day care centers (DCCs) numbered 61, scattered all over the city. This is an average of 2.25 DCCs per barangay. These DCCs provide day care services while training pre-schoolers the Montessori way, probably the only one of its kind in the Philippines. Children in these DCCs receive the same, or even better, exposure as those in private Montessori schools.

• Naga City School for Early Education and Development (SEED)

Barangay Tinago has a model DCC operated by the city government. It serves as a showcase for the NEED program and focuses on the early educational development of the best and brightest pre-schoolers in Naga.

     For the needs of pre-schoolers with disabilities, the following special projects are being run under the NEED program:

• Naga City Survey for Early Detection of Developmental and Congenital Anomalies 

A project piloted in Naga by the Philippine Pediatric Society, UP College of Medicine, the Philippine General Hospital, Japanese interns, barangay social workers and the Padangat Foundation in cooperation with the city government, its output laid down the basis for the NEED program’s activities for physically handicapped pre-schoolers in Naga City.

• Naga City Special Education Program (SPED)

A center run by the Department of Education (DepEd) in cooperation with the city government, it specializes in the education of youngsters with physical disability. 

• Naga City HELP Learning Center 

A center run by the Padangat Foundation with assistance from the city government, it specializes in the mental, as well as physical, therapy of handicapped pre-schoolers. 

Innovative features

     This program is innovative in the sense that it redirected existing disparate programs of the national government into one cohesive and comprehensive whole, thereby putting sense and logic to the local education system, at least at the pre-school level. This is realized in cooperation with parents’ associations, barangay councils and local non-government organizations.