BY CHARISSA LUCI-ATIENZA
Around 200,000 individuals will not receive scholarships for training programs after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) slashed the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority’s scholarship spending proposal for 2021.
The information was disclosed during the House plenary deliberations on the TESDA’s proposed P13.5 billion budget for next year.
“Approximately, maapektuhan ho, 200,000 individuals na hindi makakatanggap ng tamang scholarship for training programs,” said Makati City 2nd District Rep. Luis Campos Jr., vice chairperson of the House Committee on Appropriations, who defended the TESDA’s budget after Kabataan partylist Rep. Sarah Jane Elago quizzed if how many TESDA scholars will be affected by such “huge” budget cut.
Campos noted that the TESDA’s scholarship training programs are targeting 300,000 recipients.
According to him, the TESDA’s original scholarship budget proposal is P11.1 billion, but it was only given P5 billion. “So, we have unfunded amount for the programs of P6,111,250,000,” he said. (Charissa Luci-Atienza)
