Senator Joel Villanueva questioned the unutilized scholarship slots under the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) with three months left in 2021.
During the senate budget hearing for the proposed budget for the 2022 budget for the department, Villanueva said that by the end of September, around 209,908 slots are still unused.
TESDA’s initial target was to provide 492,885 scholarship slots to qualified students or applicants.
TESDA Director General Isidro Lapena said that the low utilization of scholarship slots was due to the restrictions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, reported Inquirer.
“The figure is like that because of the community quarantine restrictions but with the relaxation of the community quarantine, then we can speed this up,” Lapeña said.
“In fact, we are rescheduling enrollment and graduation at the same time, because many are waiting for this… but we can do it for the last three months,” he added.
Overseas Filipino workers are beneficiaries of TESDA programs.
