The proposed measure allows students who finish four years of high school to either go the technical vocational route and gain skills for employment or spend two more years taking up college preparatory classes (currently called senior high school).
MANILA, Philippines — The House basic education committee has approved a measure creating two education pathways for high school graduates — a proposal that lawmakers believe highlights the role of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority in making students work-ready.by Deputy Speaker Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and other related measures that sought to address the problem of senior graduates’ poor employment prospects.
Specifically, in the proposed “Education Pathways Act,” junior high school graduates will have these two options:- Students in this pathway will advance to grades 11 and 12 and take up a curriculum developed specifically to prepare students for college / university studies. The unnumbered bill also makes available a ladderized program for students who complete two-year tech-voc courses, which will allow them to have their tech-voc units credited for their college or university studies.
The K to 12 curriculum, which was promoted by its proponents under the Aquino administration as a curriculum that will create job-ready graduates, was found to have deficiencies that led to poor development of “soft skills” for work among new graduates, according to a study by the Commission on Human Rights in April.
“TESDA should identify the high-paying tech-voc jobs. Is it AI, technical things, medical health care? That is where TESDA should focus. It’s not that the decision should only come from them,” the lawmaker said.