TESDA ‘ghost scholars’, programs discovered in Central Luzon

Technical vocational education and training (TVET) programs involved in incidents of ghost training as well as ghost trainees were recently discovered by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) in Central Luzon and three other regions.

Based on the result of the probe submitted by the Investigation Committee he created, there are 62 registered programs of Technical Vocational Institutions (TVIs) with violations on TESDA rules and regulations that were discovered.

“Among my major thrusts is to address the problem of ghost scholars and ghost training. Any irregularities will be immediately dealt with, nobody will be spared under my watch,” said TESDA Director General, Secretary Isidro Lapeña.

Lapeña earlier ordered a meticulous review of the operations of all the accredited TESDA training schools in the country for three months. This led to the creation of an investigating team to conduct a thorough review and accounting of all accredited training schools due to complaints and rumors of irregularities especially in the provinces.

There were nine categories to which the investigation had focused into, some of them are those relating to existence of ghost training and ghost trainees, exaction of illegal fees and absence of inspection and re-inspection reports.

The investigation confirmed the existence of ghost training and ghost trainees in registered technical vocational and education training programs – 13 of which are in Central Luzon, seven each in Region I and Region IV-A, and 1 in Metro Manila.

Each of the training schools identified has two or more cases of conducting ghost trainings and listing of ghost scholars. Nine cases of illegal collection of fees from trainees and scholars were also found, a gross violation of the rules and guidelines on TESDA scholarship.

Four of them are in Region I, two each in Region IV-A and Region VI and one in Region VII. TESDA regional directors were already asked to explain about the anomalies that were stipulated in the findings.

“Appropriate criminal charges will be filed against those who are involved in these serious offenses as warranted,” said Lapeña.

Training schools with minor violations, on the other hand, were ordered to comply and warned of cancellation of accreditation if they fail to do so.

Following the result of the investigation, Lapeña has implemented a stricter monitoring on existing training schools and validation process for those applying for accreditation.