Senator Alan Peter Cayetano on Wednesday urged the Department
of Budget and Management (DBM) to give funds
to the Department of Education (DepEd) for the
printing and issuance of
certificates for students
who have finished technical-vocational courses in
senior high school so they
can actually find work after
graduation. “Ang promise
noon[g ginagawa pa lang
ang K-12], the TESDA
certification will be passed
to the DepEd kasi DepEd
doesn’t have the money to buy the equipment
but TESDA does have
that. And somehow hindi
natupad,” Cayetano said
during the second briefing
of the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) at the Senate
on the proposed National
Budget for 2024. The independent senator said
since the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA)
gets a budget increase o
P1 billion every fiscal year,
part of the amount could
be given to DepEd for the
purpose. “Maybe this year
ilipat natin y’ung 1 billion
pang-certification,” he
told the DBCC and fellow
lawmakers. Senator Win
Gatchalian, chairperson of
the Senate Committee on
Basic Education, Arts and
Culture, and Senator Juan
Edgardo Angara, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance, both
agreed with Cayetano.
Angara said DepEd has
never had funding for the
certification of vocational
graduates ever since the
K-12 curriculum was implemented. “We gave our
graduates that false promise that they will find work,
but the truth is that they
will not unless they have
that certification,” he said.
Cayetano urged the DBM
to increase the budget
limit for DepEd to accommodate this and other necessities, in the same way
the budget cap for the Department of Public Works
and Highways (DPWH)
is being increased. “Kung
tataasan lang din naman
natin ang cap ng DPWH,
taasan na rin natin ang
cap ng DepEd,” he told the
DBCC. Cayetano said he
will also take the matter up
once the budget briefing
with DepEd comes. PR
