ANGARA TO TESDA: GIVE MORE SCHOLARSHIPS, RELIEF
FOR ONDOY VICTIMS

Senator Edgardo Angara asked Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Chair Augusto Syjuco yesterday to spend a bigger share of its 2010 budget on scholarships for formal and technical education and extend relief funds to the victims of Typhoon Ondoy.

TESDA is proposing a P3 Billion budget for 2010, much of which Syjuco aims to allocate for scholarships, with the remaining funds to be used for full-training courses and allowances for students and to implement career-profiling programs. TESDA's programs with various local governments produce 400,000 technical vocational graduates annually.

However, it was later found in the hearing that TESDA works only with higher-income LGUs because they have more resources to implement programs and initiatives, as well as to sustain such implemented projects. Sen. Angara then stressed, "The spirit of the law is to target the poorest communities and alleviate them from poverty and allow them to improve their living conditions. We should give our students and employees more access to trainings and loans."

In the aftermath of Typhoon Ondoy, Angara also secured TESDA's commitment of P100M work-training and assistance fund for the victims to re-build and repair their homes though the agency's "Building-while-Learning" program, which would include trainings on carpentry and electrical installations. The fund will specifically be provided for victims in Metro Manila and the 28 provinces declared as calamity areas.

Angara is the father of the law instituting TESDA and CHED, as well as other landmark education laws such as the Free High School Act, and the Government Assistance for Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE), the biggest scholarship program in the country.