The Department of Education (DepEd) launched yesterday the Abot Alam Program in the Province of Negros Occidental to gather the support and commitment of the local stakeholders. Abot-Alam is a national inter-agency convergence program targeting out of school youth (OSY) in the Philippines.
DepEd Schools Division Superintendent Juliet Jeruta said that Abot-Alam Program envisions a Zero OSY Negros come 2016. The goal is to make sure OSYs aged 15 to 30 will get a chance to finish high school and acquire the needed skills to be productive. The Division of Negros Occidental initially mapped out 63,000 OSY in the 19 municipalities and 4 cities under its jurisdiction with complete with names, birthdates, addresses, highest educational attainment, and their aspirations. Out of the mapped OSY, 15, 522 identified education as their priority, 21,189 identified entrepreneurship and 26, 348 identified employment.
She said that DepEd are already taking steps to enroll the OSY in the Alternative Learning System (ALS) those who identified education as their priority. However, she admitted that they can only do so much and asks for support from various stakeholders in developing programs which can help those who identified entrepreneurship and employment as their priority. Abot-Alam Program was already launched in the Municipality of Pontevedra, Brgy. Bocana in Ilog and Brgy. Bubug in Talisay City. The OSY were provided with trainings by TESDA and NGOs and were provided employment opportunities by partner private companies.
Ms. Roda Mañalac, Executive Assistant to the Office of DepEd Usec. Mario Deriquito said the Abot Alam Program is a convergence of various support agencies to develop programs which provide opportunities to OSY.
Present during the launching were representatives from the local government units, DepEd division offices, national government agencies, and non-government organizations.