Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Bo. Armin Luistro leads education stakeholders from the government and the private sector for the National Schools Maintenance Week or Brigada Eskwela to be launched on May 20, 2013 to prepare for the opening of classes on June 3.
To support this program, school administrators are encouraged to organize the activity in their respective schools, working with their Parent-teacher Association as early as February. They recruit parent volunteers and approach local businesses for donations by March and organize work groups by April.
This Brigade Eskwela is a year-round activity as it is called the Brigada Eskwela Plus. This encouraged everyone to support the National Project on Operation 10 R’s: Recycle, Reuse, Repaint, Refurnish, Repair, Restore, Renew, Remodeling, Redistribute and Rehabilitate school facilities, classrooms, roofs, school grounds and many others for the benefit of the students.
Beyond the material, the financial benefits generated from this worthwhile endeavor in the form of better classrooms, the schools also benefit for the goodwill generated when people exert efforts for the common good- hand in hand with other like-minded members of the community.
Indeed, Brigada Eskwela has become the current-day version of our proverbial Bayanihan spirit-that tradition of volunteerism, we Filipinos value. Brigada Eskwela conveys to the students the essence of community and of humanity, which forms the core of Filipino spirit.
By: PAULINE B. ROXAS, Ed.D. | Head Teacher III | Bagumbayan Elementary School | Pilar, Bataan
