SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian on Friday (10 May 2024) urged graduating senior high school learners taking the technical-vocational-livelihood track to undergo the free assessment program that could get them national certifications to boost their employability.

Gatchalian’s call followed the anticipated release of the joint guidelines for free assessment and certification for senior high school students. Under the 2024 national budget, the Department of Education and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority are mandated to implement the program to benefit 420,900 TVL graduates.

During the deliberations on the 2024 national budget, Gatchalian proposed to fund the free assessment and certification of senior high school learners under the TVL track.

“Magandang balita para sa ating mga graduating senior high school students na kumukuha ng tech-voc — libre na ang assessment para magkaroon ng national certification. Kung makapasa sa assessment ang senior high school graduates na kumuha ng TVL, hindi lang diploma ang makukuha nila sa kanilang pagtatapos. Magkakaroon din sila ng national certification upang tumaas ang tsansang makakuha sila ng trabaho,” said Gatchalian, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Basic Education.

The 2024 national budget allocates more than P438 million under the TESDA Regulatory Program to assess senior high school learners under the TVL track for the issuance of national certification.

For School Years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, the certification rates among TVL graduates of senior high school were remarkably low at 25.7% and 6.8%, respectively.

This is due to the prohibitive cost of National Certificate assessments averaging PHP 1,009.29 per individual which the students themselves pay.