040 BRIGADA WEEK
Our friends in one of our Educator Empowerment Program beneficiaries, Doña Rosario Elementary School in Quezon City, asked me to speak for their Brigada Eskwela launch event this week. And of course, I couldn’t say no (although I couldn’t go because it was all last minute; I instead sent them a prerecorded video, as they requested).
Thanks, Principal Nancy Ebardaloza and all teachers of Doña Rosario ES. It’s always good to promote Brigada Eskwela and community involvement in education.
As such, I’m putting my message here as well. I hope it inspires other education stakeholders to see the true value of such a wonderful initiative as Brigada Eskwela—
Good morning, everyone. It’s an honor to speak before you today as you celebrate yet another year of Brigada Eskwela.
As you know, Brigada Eskwela is the current day rendition of our famed bayanihan spirit. And it serves as our education system’s most powerful weapon to rouse the Filipino public to better understand the importance of family and community involvement in education.
Yes, our public schools benefit from the free labor and the free materials you provide. But more than that, our schools benefit from the collaborative mindset—and the sense of community—that Brigada Eskwela promotes. As they say, it takes a village to educate each child. And yes, we—as that village—need to be more involved in ensuring each child learns, excels and succeeds.
I’d like to take note of this year’s Brigada theme: “Tugon sa Paghamon ng Ligtas na Balik Aral.” This highlights the need to conquer our foremost fear—the safety of our students, our teachers and all others who enter the school campus.
Rightly so.
And I remind you, dear teachers, to take advantage of our Educator Empowerment Program lessons on School Safety, since these lessons are designed to empower you to develop a safety culture in your school and to keep your school safe for all.
I must point out, however, that more than the issue of safety, the real challenge is how we—as a community—can look beyond the pandemic, and look beyond keeping our students (and our teachers) healthy and safe, so that we can address the bigger issue of improving school and student performance.
And to this end, Brigada Eskwela should go beyond the repair and maintenance of school facilities, even though that too is important.
So as we look at how we—as a school-community—contribute to this effort to prepare our children’s classrooms (and playgrounds and other school facilities), to make them more conducive—and safe—for learning, we must realize that there’s really so much more we can all do to help the school.
As your teachers should already be learning through our empowerment training on Family and Community Involvement in Education, our proverbial village of education stakeholders has so much more to offer. And it is this involvement—of the family and the entire community—that will really help your teachers and make your school improve, excel and succeed.
So, let the Brigada Spirit reign in your school throughout the year!
Let it go beyond volunteers cleaning your classrooms. Let volunteers help you, dear teachers, to make your school more fun, creative, collaborative and innovative—so that it becomes a true center for quality teaching and learning for all.
Of course, all this you can learn through the various Educator Empowerment lessons we provide for teachers!
Let us not forget that preparing for the opening of the school year shouldn’t be limited to preparing school facilities. It also means—perhaps even more—preparing our teachers (and our students, parents and all stakeholders) for a good—if not great—school year ahead.
In closing, dear teachers and friends, I say—
Continue to Empower Yourself! It is through your empowerment that you can take your school to the next level.
I thank you all for inviting me. And I wish you all a fun—and safe—Brigada Week and a fun and safe school year.
Maraming salamat po sa inyong lahat.