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Nursery is a preparation for kindergarten education. This paper deals with the gained competence of the nursery as they move up to the kindergarten program of the K-12 Curriculum in the Philippines. This study reveals that there are similarities and differences in the curriculum programs of nursery and kindergarten; that the nursery children performed very satisfactory in the learning domains on Social and Emotional; Self-Management; Perceptual and Motor; Early Math; Early Literacy; Receptive Language; and Expressive Language; and that sex is not related to the children's ability to learn and develop the skills needed of their age. This is a quantitative-descriptive method that investigated 568 nursery children from the 29 National Child Development Centers or Day-Care Centers in the Philippines. Using documentary analysis, Levene's test, and T-test, the study revealed the similarities and difference in the 2 programs and the levels of competence of the nursery children in the different domains of learning offered by the program showing their ability and the skills which help them move up to kindergarten. This study recommends that there should be a good transition of children from nursery to kindergarten and this can only be achieved if there is congruency of the curriculum offered by the two programs. The skills mastered by the children in nursery program should be enhanced more in the kindergarten program. Since kindergarten is an important developmental milestone for young children, it should offer children an experience to develop their skills, competence and potentials to the fullest and that a balance and holistic development of the children should be ensured.

The Philippines and Malaysia are members of ASEAN who respond to the challenge of EFA goals and Work Plan on Education 2016-2020, particularly on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 4.2: "By 2030 ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education." In response to this, the Philippines Department of Education (DepEd) through its K-12 Program, has made Kindergarten Education mandatory in the Basic Education Curriculum which paves way to the formulation of the new Kindergarten Curriculum Framework. On the other hand, the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Malaysia has also come up with its revised Kurikulum Standard Prasekolah Kebangsaan or National Preschool Standard Curriculum (NPSC) to meet new policy demands under the 2013-2025 Malaysia Education Development Plan (PPPM) and current needs. This paper takes cognizance on the role of curriculum as one of the significant components of the Kinder program as it compares the National Curriculum Standards of the two countries for the Kindergarten program with the aim to look into its developmentally appropriate curriculum features for better child growth, learning and development. Using Documentary analysis and NVivo, themes are identified and categorized from the interview and FGD of the kindergarten teachers, parents and principals from the selected government kindergarten school-respondents. Consequently, this study reveals some points of similarity and difference on kindergarten learning domains, teaching-learning processes, and issues in the current implementation of the Kindergarten program. The paper recommends that action be taken by the different program stakeholders in order to address quality delivery of the Kindergarten program.