Back-to-school activities to be launched in Northern Samar

TACLOBAN CITY, May 9 -- The Department of Education (DepEd) in Eastern Visayas will launch on Friday the week-long Brigada Eskwela Gamay, Northern Samar in preparation for the opening of new academic year next month. 

About 100 key officials from different field offices of the education department in the region will take a 247-kilometer caravan to the Northern Samar town on Thursday from the regional capital to join the launch at Gala Vocational School in Gamay town. 

“We picked a town in Northern Samar because we noticed that many schools in three Samar provinces are not conducive to learning. In fact, many school buildings there don’t even have power supply,” Uytico said on Tuesday.

The caravan from the city to the north aims to drumbeat wider participation in the conduct of week-long Brigada Eskwela from May 15 to 12.

“We scheduled the regional launch earlier because we want division superintendents to be in their respective assignments during school preparation activities to closely monitor the implementation,” Uytico added. 

This year’s Brigada Eskwela is anchored on the theme “Isang DepEd, Isang Pamayanan, Isang Bayanihan Para Sa Handa at Ligtas na Paaralan". It emphasizes working together to ensure safe campuses and not just conducive to learning.

“We have to remove hazardous materials around and fix whatever is needed to achieve a child-friendly school. It could not be child-friendly if it’s not safe,” the DepEd regional chief added.

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 ready for the opening of classes.

Under DepEd Memorandum No. 43 issued March 9, 2017, all DepEd employees are encouraged to join the activities by offering their skills and by sharing their time or providing their assistance in-kind. Interested employees are given two days to do volunteer work on official time, provided that such work is approved by their heads of offices.

"DepEd cannot do it alone. It takes a village to educate a child. So, through this, we will see the collaboration of government offices and private organizations and show that this is not a one-man job." 

"We also do this to ensure that the first day of classes will be intended for learning, not cleaning," Uytico said.

At least 1.1 million learners in Eastern Visayas are expected to go back to schools on June 5, the first day of the new academic year.

(Eunice T. Asuncion, OJT/PNA)