LTO: DL renewal applicants avail of free CDE
THE Land Transportation Office (LTO) Thursday clarified that the overwhelming number of applicants renewing their driver’s licenses (DL) have availed of the LTO’s free online portal for the Comprehensive Driver’s Education (CDE) program and exam, per its chief Assistant Secretary Edgar C. Galvante.
The CDE refresher course and exam for renewing license holders are required under Republic Act No. 10930 extending the validity period of driver’s licenses to ten years.
Galvante said from Nov. 3 last year till Jan. 31, the LTO renewed the driver’s licenses of 341,005 applicants, of whom 331,440 or fully 97.19% availed of the free CDE program training modules and exam from the Land Transportation Management System (LTMS), the LTO’s free online portal that its clients can use on a 24/7 basis.
Only a small portion of driver’s license renewers have actually enrolled in private driving schools for the face-to-face CDE seminars. For instance, in the LTO NCR, out of some 185,231 who have renewed their licenses since last November, only 61 applicants took the CDE seminars at LTO-accredited private driving schools.
Galvante also clarified that only the LTO should administer the CDE validation exam, either via the LTMS online portal or at the LTO Driver’s Education Centers (DECs) offering free face-to-face training at select LTO offices. The LTO-accredited private driving schools can only conduct the CDE training seminars and act as hosts for applicants to take the CDE exam using the LTMS online portal. He said that the private driving schools should use the LTO-provided materials to conduct their CDE classes.
The asst. secretary said the LTMS training modules and validation exams are offered free at the LTMS online portal via [email protected]. LTMS users can choose from an array of training videos, slide presentations, or e-books to study the CDE materials. The users can then take a 25-question validation exam and answer at least 50% correctly to earn the CDE certificate required for their license renewals.
