EDITORIAL - Stealing from scholars

It’s the summer break, and many high school graduates are pondering the careers they hope to pursue. A college degree can be expensive. For millions of families in this country, a more accessible option is technical-vocational training. Apart from scholarships offered by the government, skills matching programs can help the students find jobs quickly upon graduation.

Scholarship funds are provided by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to private tech-voc institutions or TVIs. And vile creatures have misused or stolen the funds. Since 2016, TESDA has reportedly audited 18,288 scholarship programs or courses in TVIs. Of that number, 572 were found to have violated the rules for the scholarship funds while 773 have been delisted.

Now 85 TVIs may be shut down and even face lawsuits for possible corrupt practices in connection with the scholarship programs. TESDA officials say some of these TVIs were found to have no students. Other tech-voc centers could not be found at all in their listed addresses. Programs or centers that were shut down were not reported to TESDA. Unauthorized fees were also collected from scholars.

Education is a critical component of national competitiveness. It says much about the quality of Philippine education that the country trails its neighbors in this area, based on international assessments. Only a handful of learning institutions meet demanding global standards. These learning institutions can accommodate only a small fraction of the student population.

For millions of others, tech-voc schools offer the best hope for advancement, with relatively short courses that can land them jobs overseas. Those who misuse government subsidies for these courses are evil individuals who must be stopped and penalized. Authorities must make sure that those who abuse the tech-voc scholarship program are meted harsh penalties.