Marcos signs expanded tertiary education equivalency bill into law
MANILA, Philippines —President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. has signed into law the Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency and Accreditation Program (ETEEAP) Act, allowing working professionals to finish their college education for career advancement.
The law, to be called Republic Act No. 12124, was inked by Marcos on Monday, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said in a statement on Wednesday.
The ETEEAP will “identify, assess, validate, and assign equivalent undergraduate-level and special graduate programs of prior learning from formal, non-formal, and informal learning systems and relevant work experiences to qualified individuals for the grant of appropriate academic degrees.”
The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) will serve as the lead agency in implementing ETEEAP.
It is also assigned to deputize higher education institutions (HEIs) with academic degrees to be opened for the ETEEAP, developing standards for a diversified mode of assessing skills, values, knowledge, and levels of competence, and granting or revoking HEIs’ authority to implement the ETEEAP.
CHEd will also monitor and evaluate the implementation of the ETEEAP, and its Office of Programs and Standards Development will serve as the permanent technical secretariat for carrying out the new law’s functions.
Qualifications for ETEEAP cover the following:
- Must be a Filipino citizen
- At least 23 years old
- With at least five years of work experience
