The Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday officially kicked off the nationwide Brigada Eskwela 2022 to promote collaboration and resiliency in basic education.
“The collaboration between the parents, the teachers, local governments, and the entire community on Brigada Eskwela opens a deeper and meaningful collaboration even until after the school year closes,” Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Z. Duterte said as she addressed DepEd partners and personnel at Imus Pilot Elementary School.
“With the national government supporting DepEd with the Basic Education Development Plan 2030 serving as our guide, the success of the Department’s plans and programs shall now be completed by undying love for the profession of teaching Filipino children, our children, the future of our nation,” VP-Secretary Duterte added.
With the theme Tugon sa Hamon ng Ligtas na Balik-Aral, this BE, which will run until August 26, highlights the country’s collective efforts from various partnership engagements, creating a safe learning environment for the learners, teaching and non-teaching personnel, and community to achieve safety while ensuring the delivery of quality education.
Brigada Eskwela 2022 will be a full-blown program focusing to deliver access to education and quality of education. Comprising the physical aspect of 2022 BE is Brigada Eskwela sa Paghahanda, which is a couple of weeks’ school maintenance and minor to medium repair for the re-opening of in-person classes.
For the education quality facet, BE complemented through Brigada Eskwela Plus seeks to increase learner participation and reduce dropouts, and improve education quality in participating schools to increase student performance. Furthermore, Brigada Pagbasa is an after school reading remediation program in response to Bawat Bata Bumabasa (3Bs Initiatives).
Undersecretary for Legislative Affairs and International Cooperation Gerard Chan supported that “this new administration shall take the lead in deepening our ties with our existing partners and in generating new ideas, programs, projects, activities, and avenues for collaboration.”
Assistant Secretary for Field Operations Francis Cesar Bringas expressed optimism in the success of the safe implementation of the Brigada Eskwela 2022 in School Year 2022-2023.
As preparations are ahead of the August 22 school opening, DepEd assures to conduct BE activities and initiatives that will safely open classes, and gradually reintroduce the shift from a blended learning setup to 5 days of in-person classes, especially with challenges continually posed by the COVID-19 pandemic along with inevitable natural disasters.
“We are gathered here today to pilot Brigada Eskwela all over the country. It is truly inspiring, and I hope that the energy that you are showing today will create waves and [the] waves of same energy even in the farthest public school in the Philippines,” VP-Sec. Duterte shared.
