24 CPDRC inmates to graduate ALS

CEBU, Philippines - Apart from having the world-renowned dancing inmates, Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center will soon be producing graduates under the Alternative Learning System program.

Capitol consultant on jail management Marco Toral said at least 24 inmates will graduate from the ALS program next month. They will be given the opportunity to pursue a college degree once they are released from jail.

Toral said the 24 graduating inmates were part of the 150 who enrolled in the three programs under ALS which include basic literacy, accreditation and equivalency test for elementary, and accreditation and equivalency test for secondary.

The survivors are expected to undergo the ALS accreditation and equivalency examinations next month.

ALS division consolidator Maria Daphne Daño earlier explained that the inmates-enrollees who would pass the examination on October will automatically get a diploma and a report card equivalent to elementary or secondary.

This means that if an inmate-enrollee can pass the elementary level, he can enroll to high school while enrollee of the secondary level can pursue college if he passes the test.

ALS is a free education program implemented by the Department of Education  under the Bureau of Alternative Learning System to give Filipino Out-of-School Youth, adults, including the inmates from the jails throughout the country, and those who cannot afford formal schooling, the opportunity to finish their schooling and enter college.

ALS, in coordination with the provincial government of Cebu launched the program at the CPDRC in January this year. It will end on October 30.

Toral added that the ALS program would still be implemented in the jail facility next year. (FREEMAN)