TECHNICAL Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Secretary Isidro Lapeña on Wednesday vowed to support the conversion of Cagayan de Oro (Bugo) School of Arts and Trades (COBSAT) into vocational school named the Cagayan de Oro Polytechnic Institute (COPI).
This after Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez secured a commitment from Lapeña to support the operationalization of COPI.
“This conversion would mean more budget from the national government,” said Rodriguez in an earlier statement, adding that more technical and vocational courses, buildings, instructors, and a lot more slots for students.
The conversion of COBSAT into a vocational school to be named COPI is contained in House Bill No. 9337 authored by Rodriguez.
The bill has been approved by the House of Representatives on May, this year.
“There are many students in the technical and vocational courses and we need to upgrade all the facilities and courses under a new and expanded polytechnic institute,” Rodriguez told Lapeña.
Rodriguez also asked TESDA to provide financial and technical support to the Technical Vocational Training Centers in Barangays Lapasan and Camaman-an.
Lapeña also committed to provide funds for the construction of the buildings and operational expenses of the TESDA Training Centers.
There is a need for these training centers to accommodate more students in the urban barangays, according to Rodriguez.
He also proposed to augment P5.2 billion budget of TESDA for 2022 to continue the implementation of the 3-year UniFAST program and the funds needed to purchase the toolkits for TESDA scholars.
Since 2007, Rodriguez has provided funds for more than 25,000 TESDA scholars in Cagayan de Oro City.
Every year, Rodriguez has pushed for the increase of budget of TESDA to provide more technical and vocational training for the youth. (Ben Balce)
