Brigada Eskwela starts on May 28

CEBU, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) will launch this year's Brigada Eskwela on May 28 with the theme Pagkakaisa Para sa Handa, Ligtas at Matatag na Paaralan Tungo sa Magandang Kinabukasan.

DepEd Cebu City District Superintendent Dr.Bianito Dagatan said that the division launching will be held at Labangon Elementary School while the regional launching will be held in Bohol on May 26.

There will be a caravan of two groups that will converge and highlight the stakeholders that are actively supporting the schools in Cebu City. This year's brigada focuses on Water and Sanitation (WAS) and Hygienes in Schools (HIS).

A local stakeholders' convergence event was held yesterday to inform them of this year's launching of Brigada Eskwela.

Dagatan, who attended the event, said it was aimed to encourage local stakeholders to convince other stakeholders to support the schools.

A DepEd memorandum issued on April 11, 2018 stated that Brigada Eskwela will be from May 28 to June 2, 2018.

The start of classes will be on June 4 for public schools while private schools have the option to start their classes either the first week of June or August.

Brigada Eskwela is the National Schools Maintenance Week that aims to bring together all education stakeholders to participate and contribute their time, effort, and resources to prepare public school facilities for the opening of the school year in June.

"Atong target is to prepare the schools to be ready and safe. Just in time atong focus karon ang WAS and HIS, so atong gi-encourage ang mga stakeholders nga kung naay makatabang nga mahimong functional ilang water connections, madugangan ilang washing facilities, kung mahimo madugangan ilang comfort rooms," he said.

But Dagatan said one concern is the space for the construction of these facilities.

On the other hand, Cebu City Councilor Joy Young said that in Cebu City, Brigada Eskwela is being done whole year round.

"We have our own engineers, we have our own panday laborers, we have our electricians, plumbers, naa tay equipment. Ana ba, kompleto ta and we repair the whole year," he said.

However, Young admitted that there are still so many buildings and classrooms that need repair and it is one of the challenges of Brigada Eskwela.

"Since we're doing the repair the whole year, mag-apas gyud kay daghan man kaayog ayuhunon," he added.

Dagatan said what Cebu City is doing is called Brigada Eskwela Plus.

Cebu City is the only city in Region-7 that has a Local School Board Engineering Task Force which has its own warehouse that could supply construction materials for the repair of schools. — Joyce Ann Gabutan/MBG (FREEMAN)