MANILA, Dec. 1 -- Solid North partylist Rep. Ching Bernos on Monday urged the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to fine-tune their process to ensure that more poor and disadvantaged Filipinos benefit from its programs.

The lawmaker made the call as a study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) found that the number of poor beneficiaries participating in TESDA training had declined between 2018 and 2022.

In its "Assessing the Effectiveness of TESDA Scholarship Programs in Targeting the Poor" study, PIDS also noted that the 2022 regional distribution of scholarship budgets does not necessarily align with regions with high poverty incidence, where most disadvantaged scholars are located.

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