Best Practices in Brigada Eskwela of Secondary Schools in Batangas Province

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The education of the Filipino youth is everybody's concern. While the government is tasked to provide free and quality education to every Filipino child and youth, the community where they grow is an important stakeholder in their education. The private sector, which will sooner or later employ these young Filipinos, is also an important stakeholder in their education. The successful collaboration of all these stakeholders is therefore pivotal in ensuring that Filipino children and youth go to school, remain in school, and learn in school. It poses a great challenge to educational stakeholders.

METHODS

The researcher used the descriptive method of research with a questionnaire as the main data gathering instrument. It was complemented by structured interview and focus group discussion. It is said that quantitative and qualitative study is "capable of describing the past, present and future occurrence of the event in their natural setting". This being so, the best Brigada Eskwela practices, its support to basic education and the issues and opportunities the program may bring were the parameters of inquiry in this study.

RESULTS

Results revealed that the respondents strongly agreed on the salient features of the Brigada Eskwela Work Plan. Also, the respondents assessed that the implementation of Brigada Eskwela relative to the scope of work conducted, resource mobilization, school personnel participation, and community involvement was to a great extent but broadened community support of Brigada Eskwela to basic education relative to curricular activities enrichment and physical facilities improvement was to a moderate extent. Unity of purpose was achieved to a great extent by Brigada Eskwela. Further, the respondents strongly agreed that there were issues and opportunities brought by Brigada Eskwela. The assessments on the three groups of respondents differed in their regard to opportunities brought by Brigada Eskwela, with differences noted among Brigada Eskwela coordinators when the paired comparison was conducted.

DISCUSSIONS

Brigade Eskwela was borne out of the need to address the challenges of public education in the Philippines. It started by the simple mission of cleaning up and beautifying public schools to prepare for the opening of classes. But by allowing everyone to contribute, big or small, to this worthy endeavor, it has also opened multiple doors for learning and reflection. As an output of this study, a project plan was framed to enhance its strategies toward optimum sharing of best practices.