Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian on Wednesday (February 5) discussed the agency’s future plans for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) to bridge the education and learning gaps among Filipino children.

Secretary Gatchalian, who served as one of the panelists during the 2025 Washington SyCip National Education Summit at the Philippine International
Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City, said the agency talked to the World Bank and the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) and “we are looking at maybe revamping the conditionalities of the program, to wit, completion.”

“In junior high, 8 out of 10 students are there, they complete. Pero pagdating sa senior high, it goes back to 4.9 percent. We found out na pinagtatrabaho sila kasi mas malaki kesa sa grants that they get,” Secretary Gatchalian pointed out.

The DSWD chief mentioned that in other countries, there are ‘completion bonuses’ which entitle families with children who finished a certain level of education, such as junior high school or senior high school, to a bonus or grants to keep their children in school.

“It’s keeping them in school rather than making them work,” Secretary Gatchalian said.

Secretary Gatchalian explained that challenges in education are also considered as social welfare issues, emphasizing that the “Department of Education (DepEd) cannot be blamed solely but pasan-pasan din ng DSWD yun kasi it is also a social welfare issue more than anything. So we really have to work closely.”

“What we are trying to do now is to integrate our operations closely where social welfare can be used as a tool para maiahon ang ating mga kabataan mula sa learning poverty,” Secretary Gatchalian said.

Launched in 2008 and institutionalized by Republic Act No. 11310 in 2019, the 4Ps is the national poverty reduction strategy and human capital investment program that provides conditional cash transfer to poor households for a maximum period of seven years to improve their children’s health, nutrition and education.

Secretary Gatchalian also mentioned during the education summit the DSWD’s Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program, where college students are provided with cash-for-work (CFW) in exchange for rendering tutorial and learning sessions to struggling and non-reader elementary learners, and their parents, respectively.

Secretary Gatchalian was joined by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian and Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara as panelists. (YADP)