Brigada Eskwela raises P334-M donation in Eastern Visayas

 

PALO, Leyte -- Public schools in Eastern Visayas has generated PHP334 million worth of donations from stakeholders during the week-long Brigada Eskwela, the Department of Education (DepEd) regional office here reported on Thursday.

Citing reports from 4,484 public elementary and secondary schools in the region, the DepEd regional office said support from parents, government employees, private sector, and local government officials to school maintenance week has been overwhelming.

The education department came up with the figure by recording the number of hours of labor donated to schools and materials provided by stakeholders. Each hour of volunteer service is worth PHP37.50, according to DepEd.

“The amount is in millions as we converted into cash the materials and services, but there’s no money involved here,” DepEd Regional Director Ramir Uytico said in an interview.

The education department has been discouraging stakeholders to donate cash considering that under the existing policy, funds should be remitted to the National Treasury and its utilization “goes through a lengthy process.”

“We have been encouraging school officials to motivate more parents to support school preparation activities since DepEd is still struggling despite huge budget for the education sector,” Uytico added.

The Brigada Eskwela, which ran from May 20 to 25, was anchored on the theme “Matatag na Bayan para sa Maunlad na Paaralan.”

The annual 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 in time for the opening of classes on June 3.

More than 1.2 million learners are expected to troop to schools on Monday for the start of a new academic year.

The DepEd regional office will conduct an assessment for the best implementors of Brigada Eskwela to choose the regional awardees from the nominees in city and province and document the best practices of the schools that would serve as feedback. This is also a mechanism to propose improvements in the implementation of the program. (PNA)

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