The 5th year conduct of the National Schools Maintenance Week or “Brigada Eskwela” gives emphasis to the importance of health and sanitation in schools.
Dr. Eunice Atienzar, “Brigada Eskwela” focal person of the Department of Education-11 yesterday said that the week-long nationwide synchronized activity on May 21-26 will strengthen the advocacy and awareness on health and sanitation.
Aside from minor repairs and preparations for the school opening on June 4, “Brigada Eskwela” will also involve construction and repairs of toilets in all elementary and secondary schools, Atienzar stated.
“So we will be able to look at the value and give importance to health and sanitation,” she said, urging parents to help in this endeavor to elude their children from getting sick.
She said various stakeholders from all sectors in the society are expected to converge and participate in this yearly bayanihan strategy that DepEd has institutionalized in an aim to ensure that “public schools are ready to receive students when school opens.”
Atienzar said DepEd has been mobilizing parents, teachers, students, civic and business groups, religious organizations, local government units, non-government organizations and other community residents in the annual school maintenance program.
She said they are expecting a 100 percent participation of all public schools including schools in remote areas in Davao Region.
DepEd personnel from nine Divisions have been deployed to reach out to far flung schools, she added.
Atienzar reiterated that joining the activity is voluntary, and emphasized that it is not a pre-requisite for enrollment.
