Context and Rationale

Lack of cooperation and support are typical issues encountered by many public
schools in the Philippines. Indeed, aid from other sources to provide quality and globally
competitive education is of great significance. Department of Education (DepED)
Secretary Sara Z. Duterte stressed that partnerships among the parents, teachers, local
government units, and the entire community will gauge a strong relationship between
those stakeholders even after the end of the school year.
Brigada Eskwela started in 2003 which provided an avenue for national voluntary
support of teachers, parents, and the community for clean-up drives and minor repairs
to school facilities (deped.gov.ph). According to Australian Embassy (2003), this kind of
national program promotes the act of volunteerism which encourage the parents,
community, and even private individuals to collectively give support in the different
developments in the school. Also, Education South (2021) emphasized ‘Bayanihan’ is
an essential part of Filipino culture from which the Brigada Eswela Program derived its
concept.
DepEd Order Memorandum No. 79 s. 2003 entitled “Brigada Eskwela National
Schools Maintenance Week” stated that due to the insufficient budget of DepEd, school
repairs and maintenance were not given priority. Relatively, Cruz (2022) emphasized
that more than eighteen billion pesos are needed to address the devastation caused by
calamities sustained by the education sector in the past two years as reported by the
DepEd Secretary. However, this did not include the one million and four hundred
thousand pesos to fix and rebuild classrooms damaged by the recent earthquake.
The problems that arise in public schools are due to inadequate fund allocation.
Some schools rely on donations (Illano, 2009). In addition, Celestial (2015) found out
that small schools need assistance from the big school for them to align their
implementation practices. Meanwhile, some challenges arise during its implementation.
Deos (2017) stated that in the weeklong activity, a large volume of volunteers can only
be seen for the first three days. Some activities were not accomplished because
teachers shifted their focus to their classroom concerns. There was no proper
procedure to be followed in the conduct of activities. Conversely, some school heads
have a good package of reports while others must comply with the needed papers for
their accomplishments during this time.
Hence, to give acknowledgment schools’ outstanding achievements in
implementing Brigada Eskwela Program, the DepEd will give the Best Brigada
Implementing Schools Awards anchored on the criteria given as per DepEd Order No.
34, series of 2022 viz. Brigada Eskwela School Preparation of Effort (25%), Brigada
Eskwela Partnership Engagement Activities (25%), Brigada Eskwela Impact to School
Performance (25%), Brigada Eskwela Resources Generated (15%), Bayanihan Effort to
Support the Brigada Eswela Implementation (10%) (Llego, 2022).
The Brigada Eskwela preparation effort pertains to cleanliness, sanitation,
compliance with health protocols, and the like. On the other hand, its Partnerships
Engagement Activities should be based on the extent of the impact of the different
activities in this program, especially on the number of learners or teachers including
non-teaching personnel who benefited from the activity.
The impact of this program on School Performance is assessed in terms of
access, improvement of learning hubs, participation and enrollment rate, and overall
school performance indicators. Moreover, the resources generated for Brigada eskwela
Implementation are referred to as the funds or materials acquired. The Bayanihan Effort
to Support Its implementation has a bearing on the level of impact on community
involvement and awareness of the program.
Garcia (2021) in his study revealed the best practices for the implementation of
Brigada Eskwela in the Batangas Province. He mentioned that this activity paved way
for collaboration and volunteerism which allow various sectors to extend help to the
school every year. Furthermore, another salient part of this program is broadening
community unifying support to basic education to curricular activities and improvement
of the school facilities.
Meanwhile, the Schools Division of Sorsogon (SDO) has been implementing
Brigada Eskwela annually before the opening of classes. Each school needs to submit
Brigada Implementation Plan to the division office. The plan has three components: pre,
during, and post-implementation activities to ensure that the proposed activities will
adhere to the guidelines on implementing the Brigada Eskwela Program. In pursuance
to DepEd Memorandum No. 062, s. 2022 which is entitled 2022 Brigada Eskwela
Implementing Guidelines as stipulated in the Division Memorandum No. 155 s, 2022,
SDO Sorsogon through the Schools Governance Division also recognizes the Best
Implementing Schools and special awardees. Likewise, activities of the implementing
schools during Brigada Eskwela should highlight the partnership initiatives to prepare
the schools for the opening of classes aimed by the DepEd. However, a limited number
of schools were able to comply with the requirements to be included in the selection
process.
These scenarios are the basis for conducting the study “Project APA (Analyze,
Plan, Act) for the Best Brigada Eskwela School Implementer.” This research aims to
make a documentary analysis of strategies for each criterion to be the best school
implementer. The loopholes in the implementation of the Brigada Eskwela program will
be investigated for a necessary improvement of this endeavor in each public school by
crafting the most feasible solutions aligned with this program.