Angel, tinalo si Lea Salonga!

Preparing schools for the opening of classes, otherwise known as “Brigada Eskwela,” kicked off yesterday at the Sogod Central School with a number of volunteers from the community aside from teachers and students.

Brigada Eskwela, the annual weeklong campaign enjoins the entire nation to participate in the maintenance and minor repair of furniture and facilities of public schools before the start of classes, on June 4 for this year. Volunteers may provide various services such as painting walls, repairing faulty plumbing, and cleaning classrooms.

While no cash donations will be accepted, school officials are open to the handing out of materials for cleaning, repair and beautification purposes.

Since the program was initiated in 2003, Brigada Eskwela has been increasingly successful with a growing rate of participating schools; from 12,533 schools during the first run to 29,215 in 2006. This year’s target is placed at 35,000 or about 85 percent of public schools nationwide.

Brigada Eskwela has also generated substantial contributions in the form of donations in kind, services, and volunteer hours. This has almost doubled every year from P153.16 million (2003) to P320.7 million (2004), P455.43 million (2005) and P843 million last year.

“This massive effort shows how well our stakeholders in education have increasingly been involved in the improvement of our schools. We look forward to greater participation this year,” Education Undersecretary Ramon Bacani said.

“As we all clean and repair our schools, let us remember that the true value of Brigada Eskwela is on how well we can teach our children the essence of cooperation and community involvement. Our schools benefit not only from better classrooms and facilities, but also from the goodwill of people who exert effort to spend time and share what they have to improve our schools. Our bayanihan spirit is very much alive in Brigada Eskwela,” Bacani added.

Meanwhile, DepEd regional director Carolino Mordeno said that DepEd needs P3 million for the repair of dilapidated buildings.

He invited parents, teachers, non-government organization and business sectors to help in the said activity for the betterment of education.

“The true value of Brigada Eskwela is in instilling and keeping the bayanihan spirit alive in our people. For our children, they benefit not only from having a clean and safe learning environment, but also about the essence of cooperation and community involvement,” he said.

He added that the region is still in need of a thousand classrooms to accommodate the growing population of enrollees, and that DepEd hopes to address the backlog with this activity. — Jasmin R. Uy/MEEV