By Ma. Teresa Montemayor/ PNA
MANILA — The Department of Education on Wednesday lauded the bill that would give tax relief to employers who will hire graduates or participants of its Alternative Learning System (ALS).
Senate Bill 1046 proposes a 10 percent slash in the taxable income of employers based on the gross salaries of employees who are either ALS learners or ALS graduates.
ALS is a parallel learning system encompassing informal, non-formal, and indigenous as an alternative to the existing formal education.
“Wine-welcome natin ito kasi ang magbe-benefit dito ay ang iyong mga learners na hinihikayat nating makatapos kahit na marami silang challenges and obstacles sa buhay (We welcome this because the ones who will benefit from this are learners who we encourage to finish school even if they have a lot of challenges and obstacles in life),” Education Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla said in a television interview.
Sevilla added such incentive would be a great motivation for out-of-school youths to go back to school and “to avail of the ALS”.
“But, kailangan din natin magkaroon ng study rito kasi baka imbes na magkaroon ng maraming pumunta saformal schooling, ay mag-ano naman ang informal, what I mean is, ayaw nating ma-short cut din (we need to have a study on this because instead of having [more learners] attend formal schooling, they’d rather do informal [schooling], what I mean is, we don’t want short cuts also),” she said.
In an earlier interview, Commission on Higher Education chief J. Prospero de Vera III said ALS graduates can now proceed to higher education in colleges and universities of their choice nationwide even while they are working.
“I have signed a memorandum to instruct all higher education institutions to accept all ALS graduates. This will facilitate their enrollment, they are open to apply to the universities but they have to compete with everyone else because admission to public universities is now very competitive,” he said.
