Senate panel adds P50-M funding for Tesda to get 11,000 more assessors

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MANILA, Philippines — The Senate Committee on Finance added more than P50 million to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) for an additional 11,000 assessors to certify all senior high school students taking the technical-vocational-livelihood (TVL) track.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate Committee on Basic Education, made the announcement in a statement on Monday.

According to Gatchalian, Tesda has around 7,500 assessors, but the agency needs another 11,000 to certify all the senior high school graduates.

READ: Senator: Tesda ‘misaligned’ programs

“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,” Gatchalian said.

A national certification could boost a senior high school graduate’s employability, he said.

However, most learners could not afford the cost of undergoing assessment.

For the school year 2020-2021, only 6.7 percent — or 32,965 — of 473,911 senior high school graduates who took the TVL track underwent the assessment for national certification.

Of the number, 97 percent — or 31,933 — of those who took the assessment passed.