The Senate Committee on Finance approved over P50 million allocation for the accreditation of additional assessors of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
The Senate Committee on Basic Education previously proposed the P50,012,000 increase in the TESDA's appropriation budget to be allocated for the accreditation of 11,838 additional assessors under the Technical Education and Skills Development Regulatory Program.
Senator Win Gatchalian said the senate finance committee's acceptance of the basic education panel's proposal supports the country's rollout of free assessment and certification for 420,967 Grade 12 learners taking the technical-vocational-livelihood or TVL track.
The TVL track certificates will "boost the senior high schools' chances of getting decent jobs," he added.
The Department of Education earlier disclosed that not all learners can afford the cost of undergoing TVL assessment and certification.
Hence, Gatchalian proposed the allocation of P438.16 million for the assessment and certification of senior high school learners.
Citing the DepEd date for School Year 2020-2021, Gatchalian underscored that only 6.7 percent, or 32,965 out of 473,911 senior high school graduates, who took the TVL track, have pushed through the assessment for national certification, with 97 percent or 31,933 of those who took the assessment passed.
Presently, TESDA has around 7,500 pools of assessors to certify all senior high school graduates.
Gatchalian stressed the need to hire an additional 11,838 assessors to comply with the assessor-students ratio.
"The P50 million proposal will increase the number of our assessors so that our senior high school graduates can be assessed and once they have the national certification, they can present that whenever they look for employment," he said.
Citing an analysis report, Gatchalian said 50 percent of senior high school graduates from the TVL track are employed in elementary occupation—the lowest level of occupational category in terms of skills requirement—which include street vendors, cleaners, domestic helpers, car and windows washers, and street sweepers.
Under the basic education panel's proposal, Gatchalian said the TESDA will be able to triple its current assessment capacity from 7,551 to 19,389 by the end of 2024, which will be enough to implement the assessment of senior high school learners for their national certifications.