Extent of Implementation of Brigada Eskwela: Basis for an Action Plan

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Lack of support and cooperation of the parents and other stakeholders are the common problems faced by public schools during every opening of the school year. Thus, the Brigada Eskwela (BE) program or National Maintenance Week was initiated in May 2003. Recognizing this as the best manifestation of school and community relationship, the problem lies on how the administrators utilize effective procedures to help the public understand what the schools are trying to do to attract the support of the community, efforts to provide quality education, and how to make the schools be equally concerned with the needs and problems of the community. The study aims to determine the extent of implementation of the Brigada Eskwela (BE) Program of theDepartment of Education among the public elementary schools in the Padre Garcia District, Division of Batangas Province.

METHODS

The study used the Non-experimental Quantitative Research Design utilizing the descriptive-survey method with statistics such as mean and t-test. The data was gathered through a researcher-constructed questionnaire which was administered to 34 respondents from 17 public elementary schools. The data gathered from the survey was analyzed and computed and then the result was interpreted.

RESULTS

It was established that the Brigada Eskwela Program was highly-implemented in the light of the findings of Pre-Implementation Stage, Implementation Stage, and Post-Implementation Stage. Results confirm the null hypothesis of significant difference in the level of implementation of the Brigada Eskwela Program when analyzed by school size. In the light of the findings of the study, it was found that small schools need assistance from the big schools for them to implement it the way the big schools implement them. An action plan was proposed for the enhancement of the practices to further strengthen school-community partnership especially in the small schools through the Brigada Eskwela Program.

DISCUSSIONS

The results demonstrate that Brigada Eskwela is a program that needs to be implemented well. The implementation of the plan for Brigada Eskwela must be based on the size of the school. After the survey, 53% were identified as small school and 47% were identified as big schools. Further innovation about the plan for Brigada Eskwela is highly recommended to attain the 100% development of the school. For the program to become successful, an active participation of the parents and the barangay officials should be observed and monitored.