Davao City 1st district Rep. Paolo Duterte (Facebook)

Filipino graduates must be "employment-ready” when they step out of school as far as Davao City 1st district Rep. Paolo Duterte is concerned.

“Millions of students that will graduate or have recently graduated from senior high school or college will either get a job that suits their skills or one where they are overqualified or underqualified. But many will still find themselves jobless because their skills are not commensurate to the demands in the job market,” Rep. Duterte said in a statement.

He that this mismatch in skills and job market demands "translates into wasted opportunities and lower-than-expected returns on education investments, which negatively affect the  productivity and competitiveness of our workforce".

Incidentally, the House of Representatives has passed on third and final reading in the 19th Congress two measures aimed at addressing this concern.

These are House Bill (HB) No.7370, or the bill creating a tripartite council that will be tasked to focus on the jobs-skills mismatch; and HB No.7400, or the bill that seeks to institutionalize the country’s enterprise-based education and training program.

Rep. Duterte was a principal author of both measures. These were transmitted to the Senate last March following their third reading approval.

The Davao congressman said another step in the right direction is the commitment of his sister, Vice President and concurrent Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sara Duterte, to revisit the K-to-12 basic education curriculum and make it relevant in producing competent, job-ready, active and responsible citizens.

Last week, Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) President Benedicta Du-Baladad expressed alarm over the current state of Philippine education and urged the government to make changes so it can better adapt to the fast-changing technology-driven employment landscape.

The former deputy speaker said some of MAP’s concerns can be addressed by the passage of HBs 7400 and 7370, while a third congressional measure—HB No.8069--can help nip in the bud the learning deficiencies of Filipino children.

The bill, which Rep. Duterte recently filed, aims to establish early childhood or pre-kindergarten education programs for indigent Filipino kids.

Investing in pre-kindergarten education has been proven to show concrete improvements in a child’s learning skills, said the solon. He cited a study by  the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which revealed that kids who attended one or more years of preschool scored 30 points higher in reading compared to those who did not.

Duterte also agreed with MAP’s recommendation to make the programs of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) “future-oriented” to ensure that both teachers and students are constantly upskilled to meet the demands of the labor  market.