LEVEL OF BRIGADA ESKWELA IMPLEMENTATION AND

CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED: BASIS FOR AN ACTION PLAN IN THE

DIVISION OF ILIGAN CITY

An Action Research
For the School Governance and Operation Division (SGOD)
Office of the Social Mobilization and Networking Unit

Prepared by:

ROBERTO L. DECHOS, JR., PhD

Senior Education Program Specialist

Noted: Reviewed:

JULIET S. TIMBANG, EdD RUSTY JERUSALEM

Chief, SGOD SEPS Planning and Research

Approved:

RANDOLPH B. TORTOLA, CESO V

Schools Division Superintendent

July, 2017
I. Context and Rationale

“We hope that the Brigada Eskwela Awards is not the end of our shared
responsibility to make our students’ environment safe and conducive to
learning. May this be just the beginning of more participation from the
general public to make education truly accessible, inclusive, and liberating,”
DepEd Secretary Leonor M. Briones pointed out during the Awarding
Ceremonies of the 2016 National Best Brigada Implementing Schools at
Dumaguete City.

Brigada Eskwela implementation in the Division of Iligan City is widely

participated by the stakeholders ranging from the alumni up to the different
companies and industries in the city. However, for every program, there are
be challenges that may be encountered before, during, and after the
implementation.

While the school heads submitted their reports, different outputs can be
observed. There are some with good package and there also reports next to
compliance. In the weeklong activity, only during the first three days can you
see large volume of volunteers. Some activities are not accomplished because
teachers are seen inside their classrooms. There was no proper procedure in
the conduct of the activities.

It is the purpose of this action research to determine the schools’ level of BE

implementation and the challenges they have encountered along the way.
Through this, an action plan was proposed so that schools can have reference
on the proper conduct of the program with careful considerations of the
activities, strategies, and skills on documentation and reporting. The action
plan was categorized into different stages of implementation as guide for
school heads and school coordinators.

II. Review of Related Literature

The Department of Education (DepEd) is married to the burden of fulfilling

the commitment of prioritizing education for nation building. Throughout the
years, it has devised countless ways to deliver quality education to every
Filipino (Carreon, 2015).

But like any other government agency with flaws and shortcomings, the
DepEd is not always met with favorable feedback. Most common among the
issues thrown at them is the seeming lack of priority for education in the
country, as reflected in the deficiency of resources for public schools.
Moreover, Carreon (2015) stated that DepEd addressed this issue through the
Adopt-a-School Program (ASP) in 1998. This initiative allowed a partnership
with other stakeholders who are willing to share resources to improve the
country's public school education. In a few years, the spirit of volunteerism
reached 200 partners and generated P6 billion worth of programs and
interventions. Year after year, more stakeholders have extended their support
to the Brigada Eskwela implementation nationwide.

Brigada Eskwela, also known as National Schools Maintenance Week, is the logical
extension of the objectives stated in the Republic Act 8525 or the Adopt-A-School Act of
1998. Originally, this law was sponsored by Rep. Anne Marie Periquet at the House of
Representatives. But full credit goes to former DepEd Secretary Edilberto de Jesus who
successfully pushed for the promulgation of the necessary Implementing Rules and
Regulations from the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Actual implementation of this
project took its debut flight in 2003 pioneering all throughout the public school’s
system of the archipelago.

On its central focus, Brigada Eskwela encourages and fosters amongst its student and
youth sector the value of civic action and social-responsibility gearing toward the
leveling-up of the quality of basic education system in the country. For almost a
decade, Brigada Eskwela has made a significant impact on maintaining the facilities,
properties, and operations of various public schools (Sibayan, 2012).

According to ASP report, in its online press release, “over the years, the Brigada Eskwela
effort has evolved from a week-long cleaning-up and beautification exercise to a festive coming
together of students, teachers, school officials, parents, community members, local government
officials, non-government organizations, church groups, and the private sector.”

III. Research Questions

This research sought answers to the following questions:

1. What is the schools’ level of implementation of Brigada Eskwela

program in terms of the following stages:
1.1. Pre-implementation ;
1.2. Implementation; and
1.3. Post-implementation?
2. What challenges are encountered by the schools before, during, and after
the implementation of their Brigada Eskwela?
3. What action plan can be formulated on the basis of the findings?
IV. Scope and Limitation

The scope of the study covers the complete phases of the school-based
Brigada Eskwela implementation namely pre-implementation,
implementation, and post-implementation. Along each phase, challenges
encountered by the key players are also measured through direct interviews
with the school heads, the BE school coordinator, and some stakeholders. Part
of the limitation is the time element which only included SY 2015 – 2017 and
also the research constructed questions necessary for the data gathering
together with the secondary data taken from the SGOD office. In terms of
different stages, the following were considered per stage: a.)pre-
implementation stage: organization of Brigada Eskwela committes,
assessment of physical facilities and maintenance needs, advocacy and
marketing, resource mobilization, firming up of activities for actual Brigada
Eskwela week; b.) implementation stage: day one to day five, day six; and
c.)post-implementation stage: preparation of the final accomplishment report,
submission of the final accomplishment report, sustaining Brigada Eskwela.

V. Methodology (Sampling, Data Collection, Ethical Issues, Plan for

Data Analysis)

This action research employed a purposive sampling of schools ranging from

small to large category. Performing schools whose implementation and
reports were considered but also selected other schools to complement the
variety of data were considered in the sampling. For the data collection, it
started from the release of division memorandum regarding Brigada Eskwela
implementation up to the finalization of results of winners. Key players were
informed about the research objectives to further give light in the crafting of
the action plan. Since data were a mixture of quantitative and qualitative,
descriptive statistics was used.

For the level of implementation, the following scoring was used.

5 4.21 – 5.00 Very High BE stage is very high in terms of

implementation.
4 3.41 – 4.20 High BE stage is high in terms of
implementation.
3 2.61 – 3.40 Average BE stage is average in terms of
implementation.
2 1.81 – 2.60 Limited BE stage is limited in terms of
implementation.
1 1.00 – 1.80 Very Limited BE stage is very limited in terms of
implementation.
VI. Results and Discussion

 Level of implementation

Stages Mean Interpretation

Score
Pre-implementation 2.69 Average
*Organization of Committees 1.89 Limited
*Assessment of Physical Facilities & Maintenance 2.50 Limited
Needs
*Advocacy and Marketing 2.65 Average
*Resource Mobilization 3.13 Average
*Firming-up of Activities for the Actual BE week 3.29 Average
Implementation 2.09 Limited
*Day 1 to 5 2.72 Average
*Day 6 1.45 Very Limited
Post-implementation 3.28 Average
* Preparation of the Final Accomplishment Report 3.12 Average
* Submission of the Final Accomplishment Report 3.42 High
* Sustaining Brigada Eskwela 3.31 Average
Overall 2.69 Average

On the pre-implementation stage, the schools were had an average mean

score of 2.69. This means that the schools had average level of implementation
in terms of organization up to firming-up of activities for the Brigada Eskwela
week. As observed, most of the schools did not have an organized planning in
terms of manpower, staffing, mobilization, and preparations. One day was
allotted for planning and most if not all resorted to the conventional
preparation where teachers were most involved. On the assessment of
physical facilities and maintenance needs, the school physical coordinators
were not oriented on the importance of checking the status of the schools.
Teachers were encouraged to implement BE but without high regards on
building resourcefulness, creativity, and innovative spirits. Limited parents
and stakeholders were assigned for the Brigada Eskwela but no definite
monitoring on the attendance of parents because parents assigned were no
longer the parents on the current SY.

During the implementation stage, the level of implementation had an average

mean score of 2.09 which means that most schools had limited level on the
implementation of BE. On the first five days of implementation, activities
were conducted and stakeholders’ influx was upheld. However, on day 6,
most of the schools ended their BE without proper culmination program.
Stakeholders were not anymore engaged on the last day because most of the
schools stopped their BE up to the fifth day only.
Post implementation stage had the higher level of implementation compared
to the foregoing stages. Schools were having average level of implementation
on the preparation of the final accomplishment report. It is during this stage
when the members of the documentation and reporting committees gather
together and collate available documents. Since the division office issued a
memorandum on the submission of reports, schools had high level of
submission on the scheduled dates as reflected in the dates of receipts from
the record section. After the validation and evaluation of reports, schools
maintained their best practices and learners helped maintained the schools’
physical up keeping.

 On challenges encountered

From a random interview with the school heads, BE school coordinators, and
school property custodians, it was found out that different schools have
different and common challenges encountered before the implementation of
the Brigada Eskwela. Most of them responded that poor staffing was
considered difficult because there were no concrete plans as to what would
happen in the program implementation. BE plans submitted before the end of
the SY remained as ideas because identified stakeholders were the parents in
the former parents. Teachers could not anymore demand from them that
much. Another thing, teachers also have limited idea as to where they would
look for partners and stakeholders because they themselves did not know on
what to do with them.

During the implementation, teachers were also busy preparing their classes.
They were not cooperative in terms of school improvement because they were
attending to the readiness of their classrooms. Parents who volunteered were
not properly oriented as to the extent of helping because there were no matrix
of activities and areas set for the day. The tendency was volunteers repeated
same tasks and just went home anytime they liked.

School heads are busy attending to some other reports and time constrains
made them a solid interference. They confessed that they have difficulty in
tapping partners who will support in the BE implementation. Some
stakeholders did not know the significance of the activity due to poor
information campaign of the schools.

Another challenge was the availability of parents and other stakeholders. It

was still part of summer break and other stakeholders reported to their
respective offices. Their time could only be limited.

Documentation was also considered a challenge. Teachers and school heads

admitted that they had only limited ideas on what to prepare and how to do
it. They could not have common time to discuss about the reports and there
were varied ideas resulting to poor organization of reports. Sense of
ownership was missing among them because each committee focused only to
the assignment entrusted to them.

Doing what is usual also became part of the challenge. Schools prepared the
reports for the sake of submission. When this attitude is present, one could
not expect good output of Brigada Eskwela report. Vision sharing is vital in
the implementation of Brigada Eskwela if the school heads, teachers, and
everyone in the school wanted outstanding performance not only in the
division but also in the national level.

 Proposed Action Plan for BE implementation

Stages Activities Persons Time Frame Remarks

1.Conduct orientation Minutes of
among teachers re BE meeting
plans should be
2.Meet the SHs January to documented
GPTA,SPG,SSG and Teachers March properly to
Pre-implementation

discuss plans with them. GPTA track progress

3.Set an appointment SPG/SSG of every
with the Brgy council for Brgy planned
possible inclusion and council activities.
sponsorship. Commitments
4.Assign teachers to from the
compose the teams for stakeholders
different committees. should be met.
5.Organize monitoring
and evaluation tool
 1.Call stakeholders for the Photos,letters,
kick-off program. attendance
2.Follow the plans SHs sheets,receipts
generated during series of Teachers , and other
meetings. GPTA April to proofs of BE
3.Mobilize teachers and SPG/SSG May participation
Implementation

parents to different Brgy should be

activities. council properly
4.Lead the whole school documented.
in the weeklong schedule.
5.Monitor daily
accomplishment. Conduct
daily debriefing.
6.Take many photos as
possible.
7.Record donations and
attendance.
1.Recognize the efforts of Timeliness,acc
the stakeholders and June to July uracy of data,
teacher by thanking their and
contributions in any SHs completeness
means possible. Teachers of report
2.Ask for feedbacks from GPTA should be
the volunteers. SPG/SSG ensured.
3.Accomplish the BE Brgy
Post-implementation

forms. council
4.Remind every
committee about their
required reports.
5.Organize a meeting to
collate data.
6.Gather impressions
from stakeholders in the
report preparations.
7.Decide the template to
be used for reporting.
Compose a draft then
allow everyone to suggest
before finalizing the
report.
VII. Conclusion

1. Since most of the schools had only average level of pre-

implementation stage of their Brigada Eskwela, there were
important activities necessary for the preparation that were
missed out especially on ensuring good staffing and daily
guided activities for the actual implementation.
2. Since most of the schools had limited level of implementation
stage of their Brigada Eskwela, activities during the actual
implementation were not sustained resulting to early conduct of
culmination before the suggested schedule due to declining
attendance of stakeholders in the weeklong program of
activities.
3. Since most of the schools had average level of post
implementation stage of their Brigada Eskwela, the schools’
reporting was targeted on the dot. However, the substance of
the documents was not that impressive.

VIII. Recommendations

1. The schools may form different functional committees in the

implementation of the Brigada Eskwela with proper monitoring
of the school heads and team leaders.
2. Ensure good planning and solicit feedbacks from the field to
improve performance in the different stages of Brigada Eskwela
implementation.
3. The school heads may explore all possibilities in encouraging
more potential partners from their community before reaching
others for support.
4. Enhance communication among stakeholders and committees to
keep track in the implementation of Brigada Eskwela.
5. Benchmark other schools especially on documentation and
presentation of reports.
6. The schools may use the proposed action plan of this research as
reference to make their Brigada Eskwela more organized.

IX. References

Carreon, L. (2015). What We Can Learn From Brigada Eskwela.March 30, 2015 at
https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/ispeak/94749-what-we-can-learn-brigada-
eskwela

Sibayan, Teresita E. (2012). Brigada Eskwela 2012: Making the School a Home for
Learning. October 16, 2012 at
https://dampeelementaryschool.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/brigada-eskwela/