The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office 7 encourages children beneficiaries under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) to enroll for the school year 2024-2025 through the Bata Balik Eskwela (BBE) campaign.

“Through this campaign, DSWD would like to bring back to school the 4Ps children beneficiaries, especially those who stopped going to school or have difficulty continuing their studies,” said DSWD-7 4Ps Division Chief Jiah Sayson.

Sayson added that 4Ps children beneficiaries are stakeholders of the program and are responsible for complying with one of the main conditions of 4Ps relating to education. They re-enroll in school and attend classes to benefit from the program.

“The program, however, recognizes some children have difficulty continuing their studies for various reasons. These need to be attended to in collaboration with everyone, from the parents, school, and local government units up to the national government units like the Department of Education (DepEd) and DSWD,” she underscored.

Sayson said that part of the DSWD intervention is the house visitation of 4Ps households whose children failed to attend classes in the previous school year.

“During the home visits, the 4Ps City and Municipal Link (C/MLs) would talk to the parents and their children to identify issues and barriers that prevent them from attending school and complying with the condition on education,” said Sayson.

To encourage the children more, the C/MLs also distributed flyers, oriented the children on child rights, and conducted focus group discussions (FGD) to identify the reasons for absenteeism and possible interventions in coordination with the parents and the local government units.

Meanwhile, the local government unit (LGU) of Pamplona in Negros Oriental distributed school supplies to learners at Fatima Elementary School.

Some 262 children from kindergarten to grade 6 received school supplies, of which 136 are 4Ps beneficiaries. After this, 4Ps Municipal Links reminded the 4Ps children beneficiaries of the program conditions and how they would be able to receive the education grants from the program.

After a short briefing, the MLs randomly visited classrooms to check on the school supplies of 4Ps beneficiaries. The Municipal Links also provided technical assistance to the teachers of Fatima Elementary School in the presence of their school principal, Mr. Badeth Gaso, and the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Officer (MSWDO) Ma. Luisa Aguilar.

The 4Ps Bata Balik Eskwela (BBE) is an advocacy campaign that aims to remind all 4Ps children to comply with one of the main conditions of the program, which is to enroll back in school and attend their classes.

Now, children of 4Ps households receive education grants from the government. For elementary students, a PHP 300 grant per child per month for ten months is conditional on their child’s school attendance; PHP 500 per child per month for junior high school with the same conditionality on their child’s school attendance; and Php 700 per child monthly for ten months for senior high school with the same condition.

The 4Ps households also received health grants worth PHP 750 per month per household for 12 months, provided their children aged 2–14 underwent growth development and monitoring, deworming, and attended the monthly family development sessions (FDS). On top of the education and health grants, 4Ps household beneficiaries receive a monthly rice subsidy of PHP 600. ###

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