National Certification Now Free for Tech-Voc SHS Graduates

May 11, 2024 - Senator Win Gatchalian has made a significant call to graduating senior high school learners taking the technical-vocational-livelihood (TVL) track. He urged them to undergo a free assessment program that could lead to national certifications, thereby boosting their employability.

This call comes in the wake of the anticipated release of joint guidelines for free assessment and certification for senior high school students. As per the 2024 national budget, the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) are mandated to implement this program, which is set to benefit 420,900 TVL graduates. During the deliberations on the 2024 national budget, Senator Gatchalian proposed to fund the free assessment and certification of senior high school learners under the TVL track. He stated, “This is good news for our graduating senior high school students taking tech-voc — the assessment to get a national certification is now free. If the senior high school graduates taking TVL pass the assessment, they will not only receive a diploma at their graduation. They will also receive a national certification to increase their chances of getting a job.” The 2024 national budget allocates more than PHP 438 million under the TESDA Regulatory Program to assess senior high school learners under the TVL track for the issuance of national certification. However, it’s worth noting that for the School Years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, the certification rates among TVL graduates of senior high school were remarkably low at 25.7% and 6.8%, respectively. This was due to the prohibitive cost of National Certificate (NC) assessments, averaging PHP 1,009.29 per individual, which the students themselves had to pay. With the new initiative, it is hoped that more students will be able to afford these assessments and improve their chances of securing employment after graduation.