THE Department of Education (DepEd) committed P25.7 billion to expand school feeding for all kindergarten and Grade 1 learners in public schools, up from P3.3 billion in 2022, marking the first nationwide universal feeding program for early learners and making nutrition a central part of early learning “We will have universal feeding for all public schools in the Philippines for kindergarten and grade 1, all for 180 days for the full school cycle.
For the first time in Philippine history,” said Education Secretary Sonny Angara on Monday, Feb. 2. “And the budget is now almost 10 times more.” The budget increase, he said, enables full nationwide coverage, treating nutrition as an essential component of learning in the early grades rather than a supplementary program.
“If you look at countries that are advanced in education, they focus on the foundation, and if the foundation is weak, the building or whatever will be built is also weak. And it does not just involve what we teach in the classroom. It involves what we do at home, how we bring up our children,” Angara said.
He added that the feeding expansion is part of a broader, long-pending reforms now being implemented, aimed at strengthening foundational learning in kindergarten and early grades, alongside improvements in teaching, assessment, and the use of digital learning tools such as Khan Academy Philippines, Canva, Google, and Microsoft.
“Let’s make use of the tools being made available to you by the department to maximize our students’ learning. We really want to make things more fun, more engaging. Because we realize this is a system that we all co-create together. And it’s for the benefit of everyone,” he said at Gen. Pio del Pilar National High School in Makati City The announcement came during the International Day of Education celebration where Ivan Anthony Henares, secretary general of the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines, said youth are not just participants in education but its driving force.
UNICEF Philippines Country Representative Kyungsun Kim emphasized that student voices, creativity, and initiative strengthen the relevance of reforms.
The event, attended by Makati Mayor Nancy Binay, gathered student leaders, youth advisers, teachers, and DepEd officials from the National Capital Region.
