Prov’l govt implements 3-yr plan for out-of-school youth

CEBU, Philippines - As part of its effort to provide opportunities to the Out-of-School Youth (OSY), the Cebu Provincial Government has implemented the “Abot Alam” program, a three-year national strategy to organize efforts in integrating programs for OSY in the province.

The program consists of two phases, pursuant to a memorandum circular of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). This includes the Registration or the Barangay Targeting System which creates a comprehensive database of the OSY nationwide.

The second phase is the Community Reintegration Program which would reintegrate the OSY to their respective communities through intervention programs of Department of Education, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and other private agencies.

Through an executive order, Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III directed all local chief executives, as well as barangay captains, to designate focal persons who would coordinate with the National Youth Commission (NYC), DepEd and local government units for the effective implementation of the program.

The point persons would monitor the registration of the OSY, undertake massive information dissemination to raise awareness and consolidate and encode collected data in the online databank of  the program, http://abotalam.com.ph.

NYC Chairman Leon Flores III was thankful that out of 80 provinces in the country, Cebu has been the first to issue an executive order to support the program.

“Makahatag tag opportunities sa kabatan-onan nga makabalik sila sa pagskwela, mahatagan og training... If they see nga the agencies, the Abot Alam, are approaching them, at least they know where to start,” he said.

Flores added that DepEd is targeting one million OSY who would be reintegrated through the three-year program. There are about 4.2 million OSY all over the country.

“There is no framework for the out of school youth. In Abot Alam will help address how do we deal with the challenges of integrating our out of school youth into the system.” (FREEMAN)