SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian pushed anew the proposal to boost the college readiness and employability of senior high school graduates while the Department of Education is eyeing the pilot run of the revised senior high school curriculum for School Year 2025-2026.

Gatchalian’s Batang Magaling Act or Senate Bill No. 2367 seeks to produce senior high school graduates with the knowledge, training, and skills demanded in the labor market regardless of their chosen exits: higher education, middle-level skills development, employment, or entrepreneurship.

The legislator emphasized the importance of addressing challenges hounding the senior high school program.

While the program promised to produce work-ready graduates, a 2020 discussion paper from state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies previously revealed that only a little over 20 percent of senior high school graduates enter the labor force.

The PIDS study also revealed that compared to Grade 10 and second-year college completers, senior high school graduates have no clear statistically significant advantage or disadvantage when it comes to basic pay per day.

The proposed measure also seeks the creation of the National Batang Magaling Council, which will be composed of the DepEd, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Department of Labor and Employment, three national industry partners, a national labor group, and the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines which is an umbrella organization of all leagues of local government units.

The Council shall serve as the mechanism to align schools’ curricular offerings and the work immersion component of senior high school with market needs identified by industry partners and government agencies.

It will also be mandated to increase awareness and commitment of industry partners and government agencies to accept learners in the work immersion programs, ensure that their deployment is done according to their tracks, and enable learners to acquire specialized skills and competencies to advance in their chosen paths.

“Isinusulong natin ang Batang Magaling Act upang matiyak natin ang kahandaan sa trabaho ng ating mga graduates sa senior high school. Titiyakin nating may maigting na ugnayan sa pagitan ng pribadong sektor at mga paaralan para sa magandang kinabukasan ng ating mga mag-aaral,” said Gatchalian, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Basic Education.