SBN 2568, AN ACT INSTITUTIONALIZING THE EXPANDED TERTIARY EDUCATION EQUIVALENCY AND ACCREDITATION PROGRAM (ETEEAP)
Mr. President, Honorable Colleagues of this august Chamber:
As Chairperson of the Committee on Higher, Technical and Vocational Education, I rise to sponsor Committee Report No. 206, which recommends the approval of Senate Bill No. 2568, entitled “An Act Institutionalizing the Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency and Accreditation Program (ETEEAP) and Providing Funds Therefor” in substitution of Senate Bill No. 1908 filed by Senators Mark Villar.
Mr. President:
If you begin your day by composing your Facebook status on a Microsoft-powered laptop, then you’re consuming the creative genius of two college dropouts—Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.
There are many like them in our midst, whose wealth may not be as big as an entire country’s GNP, but who, nonetheless, in their own ways, make our lives and society better.
But for many college dropouts, whose skills are not receipted by a diploma, the absence of academic credentials can and does lead to opportunity losses.
Often, their career advancement is blocked by a diploma wall—while those far less talented, whiz past them by flashing a diploma as a gate pass.
And nowhere is this race fiercer than in the civil service, where the orthodoxy of degrees over skills reigns supreme.
The result is the perpetual acquisition of educational units, and the collection of seminar credits, merely for the sake of promotion in rank, rather than the attainment of new knowledge.
This diploma wall blocks repatriated talent—OFWs who have done decades of tours of duty in the most competitive environments—from reintegrating into an economy they can enrich with their talents and whose workers they can upskill.
Kahit sa Michelin Star resto pa naging sous chef, hindi puwedeng gawing faculty ng isang SUCs kasi walang MA. Kahit na henyo sa IT sa abroad, pagdating dito kung walang degree, walang trabaho. No diploma, no entry.
To those who need to acquire degrees to not only confirm but add to the talent they already possess, fortunately, there is the Expanded Technical Educational Equivalency Accreditation Program contained in Senate Bill No. 2568.
Run by CHED, it is an educational assessment scheme that recognizes knowledge and skills attained by individuals in workplaces. It employs equivalency competence standards and a comprehensive and assessment system that assigns equivalent academic credits based on a candidate’s competency and work experience.
The result is the crediting of units “earned in real life, with flying colors.” This, together with other requirements, can eventually lead to the conferment of degrees, by deputized HEIs or Higher Education Institutions.
This bill, Mr. President, creates a charter for this program and designates the CHED as the lead implementor. And because the ETEEAP is imbued with national goals, SBN 2568 creates a 12-person Public-Private Advisory Body, to align the programs with national needs.
Pero sino nga ba ang puwedeng mag-apply sa progamang ito?
Una, Filipino citizens, nandito man sa Pilipinas o abroad.
Pangalawa, must not be less than 23 years of age at the time of application. Pero wala pong maximum age limitation. You can be as young as JPE and still apply.
Pangatlo, dapat high school graduate, may diploma na resibo na dapat ipakita, o di kaya pruweba ng Philippine Educational Placement Test or Alternative Learning System Accreditation and Equivalency Assessment and Certification.
Pang-apat, mayroong minimum na five years of aggregate work experience in the industry related to the academic degree program or discipline where equivalency is sought.
O kaya, documentation of training programs and workshops attended or a favorable result in a competency assessment administered by deputized HEI as a prequalifying requirement.
Mr. President, my dear colleagues:
I submit this bill for your consideration, discussion, improvement, and approval so our fellow citizens who graduated with excellence from the University of Life will no longer have a diploma wall standing in their way.