TACLOBAN CITY-Ahead of the June 4 school opening, teachers, parents, students and volunteers dirtied their hands in cleaning school rooms and grounds to ensure that students will have their first day in school inside their classrooms.
Here in the city, thousands have joined the six-day ‘Brigada Eskwela’ activity which started Monday (May 28).
At the Rizal Central School, one of the biggest elementary schools in the city, parents and their students joined with school personnel in the clean-up activity.
Greg Galos, school principal, said that he was glad that parents of their students joined the activity which is to end on June 2, two days before the start of the 2018-2019 school term.
According to him, because of the donation from their volunteers, they were able to raise half a million pesos last year.
And they expect that for this year’s Brigada Eskwela, they could surpass what they have collected last year.
He said that with their increasing number of students, the schools need additional school buildings.
At the Leyte National High School, considered the biggest secondary school in the region in terms of students’ population, parents and students also joined the Brigada Eskwela or school maintenance week.
“As of now, we are repainting and restoring the classrooms and tables and cutting grasses so that students will be comfortable during the start of classes,” Jennylind Daya, Balik- Eskwela coordinator, said.
Daya said that during last year’s Brigada Eskwela, LNHS was able to generate about P700,000 worth of donations from parents and donors.
“We seek for the support from the stakeholders especially from the parents to come and join our brigada activity. Also, we encourage them to educate their children to be discipline in waste management in case they’re in school,” she said.
VJ Esplago, a Grade 10 student and a member of Student Supreme Government, said that Brigada Eskwela is a big help as students could expect formal start of classes and would not worry of cleaning their classrooms during the first days of classes.
Brigada Eskwela is a program of the Department of Education(DepEd) which is done ahead of the school opening. It encourages involvement of all stakeholders in the community to help clean-up of schools.
The activity is also a way of the DepEd to instil the spirit of volunteerism among the public. (REJOY R. TORALBA, SHELLA MAE D. ASTORGA, DHEMA NINA O.IGAY, NwSSU Student Interns)
