To:     Undersecretaries
Assistant Secretaries
Bureau Directors
Regional Directors
Schools Division Superintendents
Heads, Public Elementary and Secondary Schools
All Others Concerned

1. In line with the objective of achieving the Education for All (EFA) targets and Millennium Development Goals (MDG), the Department of Education (DepEd) announces the implementation of the Abot-Alam Program. Abot-Alam is a convergence program that is being undertaken by a consortium of various national government agencies, and non-government organizations (NGOs) and institutions under the leadership of DepEd and the National Youth Commission (NYC). It is a national strategy to locate the out-of-school youth (OSY) nationwide who are 15 to 30 years old and who have not completed basic/higher education or who are unemployed, and to mobilize and harmonize programs which will address these OSYs’ needs and aspirations.
2. Abot-Alam Program aims to reach one million OSYs in 2014 and one million in 2015 and to provide them with appropriate interventions on education, entrepreneurship, or employment.
3. In support to this commitment, the enclosed 2015 Implementing Guidelines on the Abot-AlamProgram is hereby issued as enclosure to this DepEd Order. An annual budget shall be provided to all regions and divisions for effective program implementation subject to the guidelines on the availment, release, utilization and liquidation thereof.
4. For more information, all concerned may contact the Office of the Undersecretary for Partnerships and External Linkages – Abot-Alam Secretariat, 5^th Floor Bonifacio Building, DepEd Complex, Meralco Avenue, Pasig City at telephone no.: (02) 638 8639.
5. Immediate dissemination of and strict compliance with this Order is directed. All other guidelines/issuances related to Abot-Alam are hereby rescinded.

(Sgd.) BR. ARMIN A. LUISTRO FSC
Secretary

Encl.: As stated

Reference: DepEd Order: No. 17, s. 2014

To be indicated in the Perpetual Index under the following subjects: