The merits of Brigada Eskwela, the just concluded annual program of activities implemented by the Department of Education and is spearheaded by parent-volunteers, need to be extolled if only to draw more people in supporting it.
DepEd Memorandum 79 of 2003 established the program-initially-as the National Schools Maintenance Week. In a more recent memorandum, namely, Memo #168 series of 2009, it describes "Brigada Eskwela [as] a schools maintenance program nationwide that engages all education stakeholders to contribute their time, effort, and resources in ensuring that all public schools are ready in time for school opening."
While it is obvious that many view Brigada (even by those who first conceptualized it in 2003) as simply being DepEd's way of involving students' parents in the logistical preparation and maintenance of public schools before the opening of classes every year, a closer scrutiny reveals that the program actually achieves something more: it contributes to the formation of communities which enables the delicate and precarious task of nation building. For beyond the cleaning, repairing, and donating of non-monetary resources, is the process in which stakeholdership takes place among those taking part in Brigada Eskwela.
For akin to bayanihan activities of previous generations, the impetus of Brigada Eskwela is derived from the former's principles of community solidarity and cooperation. The Brigada is an occasion and opportunity for students, their parents, teachers and non-teaching staff, and even private enterprises and persons to recognize and undertake the responsibility of educating our next generation of citizens. Brigada Eskwela, notwithstanding flaws in it its implementation or the limitation of its initial underlying intentions, contributes towards the building of our nation.
In a fragmented and fragmenting society such as ours whose cohesion cannot anymore rely on an adherence to a unitary religious belief, but is instead beset by competing and often conflicting sets of values, the call to build a nation for our children's sakes may prove to resonate more soundly given our family-centeredness. In as much as Brigada Eskwela aids us in this respect, it is truly worth our support.