AS students prepare for their first day at school, Philippines’ Department of Education (DepEd) is also making the necessary steps to ensure an orderly first day for students.
In accordance with the preparations for the opening of classes on June 6, the DepEd recently launched this year’s Brigada Eskwela, an annual project that invites volunteers and participants to donate construction and cleaning materials that will be used in cleaning and repainting schools two weeks before classes start.
Since its first launch last 2003, Brigada Eskwela has been promoting the bayanihan spirit amongst Pinoys and foreigners alike.
Aside from the different local government units (LGUs), parents, teachers, students, other agencies who took part in the Brigada were: Ayala Foundation Inc., Coca-Cola Foundation Inc., GMA Kapuso Foundation Inc., IBM Phils., Intel Technology Phils., Microsoft Phils., ABS-CBN Foundation Inc., Smart Communication, Inc., and San Miguel Corp., among many others.
Meanwhile, Education Secretary, Armin Luistro, said that two international donor organizations have also made their presence felt by actively participating in this year’s Brigada. The Australian Agency for International Development (AusAid), have chosen several schools in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to clean up and repair. The United States Agency for International Development (USAid), on the other hand, took on three schools to repair and repaint.
Schools may be cleaned and refurnished but it will still not be spared from another natural cause of vandalism which is flood. The recent typhoon that hit the country, Chedeng, has caused students—especially those in the flood-prone areas like Malabon—worry on how they can study in a flooded classroom. Last May 27, the morning news show of GMA, Unang Hirit, reported the situation of one flooded school in Malabon named the Panghulo Elementary School. The classrooms on the first floor were swamped due to incessant raining. Located in a low-lying area, the school is no stranger to floods as it has always been the case for the past 10 years.
Through Brigada Eskwela, volunteers, parents, teachers, and the men from the FP NCR Civil Military Operations group have offered their help in cleaning and drying up the school before classes resume. Water pumps were provided and five more classrooms are seen to be built for students to use.
More classrooms are set to be built by the Aquino administration, with its target to achieve a 1:45 classroom-student ratio as part of its commitment to accomplish one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)—which is improving the quality of education in the Philippines by 2015.
This school year also marks the implementation of the K-12 (Kindergarten plus 12) program in national schools. The K-12 adds two years to the former 10-year education cycle of the country in order to be “at par” with other countries who have the 12-year education system.
Aside from introducing the Brigada Eskwela, the DepEd and other LGUs also launched the Oplan Balik Eskwela (OBE) Information and Action Center Task Force (IAC), a project that ensures orderly opening of classes so that the school children are properly enrolled and will be in school on June 6.
Formal education may make for a living, but it will not serve its purpose if it will not teach the young how to make a life. Education is the best gift that an individual can share to the world. But sometimes, there are lessons that ought to be known by heart—just like how neighbors learn to help each other in times of need. Experience is the best teacher, so they say. For with books, a person gains intelligence, with experience, a person gains wisdom.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(Las Vegas June 2-8, 2011 Sec A pg. 6)
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