Helping SHS graduates
A NATIONWIDE campaign designed to enhance the capabilities of senior high school (SHS) graduates deserves the support of all sectors of Philippines society.
Of course, it is certainly very “frustrating, disturbing and lamentable” that records show that only 30 percent of the country’s SHS graduates join the labor force.
Many of the graduates, or more than 70 percent, continue to pursue college education, knowing fully well that even local employers prefer to hire degree holders.
Everybody agrees that even today’s college graduates still find it hard to get jobs abroad because of our failure to prepare our youngsters to be globally competitive.
We, thus, commend the government for its efforts to come out with programs and strategies aimed at enhancing the capabilities of SHS graduates to get jobs.
Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian said that Congress and the Department of Education (DepEd) must undertake a comprehensive assessment of the education sector’s performance.
Last July, Gatchalian even filed Senate Resolution No. 5 seeking an inquiry on the status of the implementation of Republic Act (RA) 10533 or the K- to-12 Enhanced Basic Education Act.
Senator Gatchalian of Valenzuela City is chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture and the “Second Congressional Commission on Education.”
Recently, even Vice President Sara Z. Duterte, concurrently the secretary of the education department, urged the country’s employers to hire more “K- to-12” graduates.
The “K-to-12 Enhanced Basic Education Act” expanded the schooling in basic education from 10 to 12 years.
Certainly, Congress and DepEd authorities are on the right track in helping our SHS graduates.
