SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian is seeking an inquiry on the implementation of the Free Senior High School Assessment and Certification Support Program for technical-vocational-livelihood learners, an initiative that seeks to boost their employability.

In filing Senate Resolution No. 935, Gatchalian pressed the need to assess the readiness of the Department of Education and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to roll out the program.

During the deliberations on the 2024 national budget, Gatchalian pushed to fund the free certification of senior high school learners taking the TVL track. Under the 2024 General Appropriations Act, P438.16 million was allotted under the TESDA Regulatory Program to assess senior high school learners taking the TVL track for the issuance of National Certification.

The allocation aims to benefit 420,900 Grade 12 TVL graduates.

Gatchalian proposed to fund the assessment and certification of Grade 12 learners taking the TVL track because of the low certification rates recorded for School Years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.

The low certification rates were attributed to the prohibitive cost of NC Assessments, the average cost of which is P1,009.29 per individual.

Despite the low certification rates, the passing rates among those who took the assessment were 98% in SY 2019-2020 and 97% in SY 2020-2021.

“Isinulong nating pondohan ang certification ng ating mga senior high school graduates sa TVL track upang tumaas ang posibilidad na makakuha sila ng maayos na trabaho. Nais nating tiyakin na magagamit nang tama ang inilaan nating pondo upang matulungan ang mga Grade 12 TVL graduates,” said Gatchalian, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Basic Education.

The amount of P50 million is also allotted to the DepEd under the Teacher Quality and Development Program to train and certify senior high school teachers under the TVL track through TESDA.

Gatchalian also hopes that the certification of Grade 12 graduates taking the TVL track would address their lack of labor market advantage.

According to a 2020 study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, the average daily basic pay of senior high school graduates was P316, only P14 higher than Junior High School completers.