005 BRIGADA ESKWELA
Without a doubt, Brigada Eskwela is the education department’s most powerful brand. This was what compelled me to develop, in 2009, what we referred to as Brigada Eskwela Plus, which was our attempt to transform the annual school repair and maintenance week into a much bigger and more significant education sector initiative.
It made perfect sense to then Education Secretary Jesli Lapus when I presented to him—one-on-one—the BE+ proposal.
His response: “Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?”
Of course, his main concern then was the fact that the presidential election was just around the corner, which would most likely mean that his term in office would end soon. Just the same, he gave the green light to the project and in no time signed the necessary department issuance (Department Order 100, series 2009).
We both thought that we had enough time to at least get the ball rolling.
From a communication standpoint, it was a great plan. Virtually everyone knows about Brigada Eskwela—it’s that time of the year when people from all walks of life troop to nearby public schools as volunteers to help prepare them for the new school year.
It therefore made sense for us to use that same brand to expand volunteerism in public education, precisely through BE+.
So, instead of just limiting repairs and maintenance to Brigada week, BE+ would encourage community stakeholders to take turns volunteering to do this year round.
More than this, the idea is to expand community involvement in education by getting volunteers to assist in the areas of student participation (wherein they’d help the school to get more parents to bring their kids to school) and even student performance (wherein they’d help the school to get more parents to assist their kids with school work).
Sadly, we didn’t get far with BE+, despite the department issuance. Lapus was suddenly moved to head the trade department, so BE+ lost its most important element—a strong champion (Incidentally, Lapus did extremely well in championing the department’s Adopt a School Program, but that’s worthy of a separate discussion). Two succeeding administrations expressed interest in BE+, but for whatever reasons, discussions did not prosper. Unfortunately, we never got to see BE+ in action.
To a certain extent, I’d trace the roots of our Educator Empowerment Program to Brigada Eskwela Plus. Even while it focuses on the empowerment of the school through teacher empowerment, EEP also emphasizes the important role of the entire school community in the process of improving teaching and learning.
Yes, both the EEP and BE+ are about requiring the entire village to educate the child. And they’re both about school based management. As much as they both recognize the importance of getting everyone involved, these two initiatives highlight the potential of schools to improve and excel through the participation of all education stakeholders in a given community.