Congressman Hector S. Sanchez yesterday attended a hearing of the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education (CHTE) to sponsor and expound on his proposed bill seeking to convert the Cabugao School of Handicraft and Cottage Industries (CSHCI) into the Catanduanes Polytechnic Skills Development Institute (CPSDI).
At the meeting presided over by committee chairman Rep. Mark O. Go, the Catanduanes solon attested that the change is name is proper, as the school should no longer be described as such when it no longer offers courses related to handicraft and cottage industries.
Founded in 1970, CSHCI evolved from a secondary vocational high school to a post-secondary school and, in 1997, was absorbed by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to offers skills training programs to all 11 municipalities.
The rapidly changing demands of the industry and the labor market at both the domestic and global markets, he stated, makes it imperative for the Bato school to convert into a polytechnic institute and effect a major curricular program shift towards the development of world-class Filipino workforce equipped with practical and technical skills of global competence.
Cong. Sanchez stressed that the change in its curricular program would allow the Institute to offer a wide array of one-year to three-year TESDA-registered technical-vocational curricular skills training programs and certificate courses relevant to the needs of the Catandunganon.
The measure would enable the Institute to meet the maximum competency requirements under Level IV of the Philppine Qualifications Framework, which is the diploma level in tech-voc education.
The congressman said the Institute would be able to keep pace with government programs and thus secure funding for additional workers through the Abot-Lahat Program. It would likewise continue to assist the K-to-12 program of the Department of Education (DepEd) in training its teachers and serve as assessment center for graduates of Senior High School tech-voc graduates as well as for local industries.
Its Agri-Fishery related programs, Sanchez pointed out, would respond to the administration’s efforts to achieve food security in the country.
Complete and quality training and equipment would ensure that Catanduanes would become a workers’ hub, he added.
As proposed in House Bill No. 5131 which Sanchez filed on Nov. 19, 2019, the Cabugao campus Institute would serve as the main campus of the Institute, with the TESDA training centers in Viga, Pandan, and San Andres to be converted into extension campuses.
Practical specialty courses in tourism, entrepreneurship, engineering, electrical and electronics, garments, agriculture, building and construction, and other related trade industries, as well as higher-level competency qualifications in technical industrial education and trade technology will be offered.
If approved, the Institute will be headed by a school superintendent under the supervision of TESDA and appointed by its director-general.
The conversion would also lead to the creation of five plantilla positions in each of the extension campuses, an increase in its current MOOE budget from P1.54-million to P7.5 million, an additional P7.5 million for equipment and P50 million for new infrastructures, Cong. Sanchez explained.