While the Alternative Learning System (ALS) of the Department of Education (DepEd) has long provided inmates a chance to finish their elementary and high school education while incarcerated in jails across the Philippines, there is currently no formal college inside a jail in the country that allows them to pursue higher education – but soon, Davao City will open its doors to one!
According to the report on Brigada News Davao, construction has been hastened for the country’s first formal college inside a jail so that it can be opened this coming June, just in time for classes to start similarly with the schools outside the facility.
The formal college inside Davao City Jail can cater to as many as 200 inmate students per semester, revealed J/CINSP Pio Rosero in an interview with GMA News.
According to the report, the formal school will be operated and managed by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in cooperation with the University of Southwestern Philippines.
Rosero believes that this will have a positive impact on the inmates who can pursue a college education and finish their studies while in jail so that when they get back to the community, they will find a good job instead of getting back to their wayward ways.
For now, the school will be offering five courses in Social Studies, English Language, Education, Psychology, and Information Technology but more courses, especially technical and vocational courses, will be added in the future.
Isn’t this great news?