MARYDEN Ocot, the longtime early childhood care and development officer of Misamis Oriental, is working on her vision one structure at a time: to build development centers colorful enough to ignite learning in each child.
This was one of the points Ocot revealed during the weekly Meet the Press of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club last July 8 at SM CDO Downtown.
“That’s why our child development centers have monkey bars and seesaws. This is part of our thrust under Gov. Juliette Uy which is Every Child Belongs,” she said.
Ocot – a nurse by profession – supervises 757 centers in the whole province catering to almost 25,000 students.
This is a far cry from the ideal 1:10 teacher-student ratio but so far they have adapted.
“Each session lasts only three hours. So we divide the day into several sessions so each child is accommodated,” Ocot said.
As of June this year, six more child development centers are in construction. They are located mostly in Gingoog City, Medina and Talisayan and all of these structures are strictly inspected by Ocot’s staff.
This initiative aims to assess the progress and quality of imprlemented projects, ensuring that they meed the standards to enhance early childhood care and development (ECCD) in the area with the inspection process involving site visits and consultations with local stakeholders.
The Misamis Oriental ECCD department is also on track with their three-year roadmap that will kick off in 2027 under Uy’s governorship.
“Together, we continue creating brighter beginnings for every child,” Ocot said.
