Feature: Adopt-a-School Program – Working together for the improvement of our schools
Pasig City (11 August) — No task is as challenging as that of the Department of Education (DepEd) whose mandate is to make quality basic education accessible to several millions of Filipino children. Every year, the Department must cope with the burgeoning demand for tuition-free education. The increasing number of enrollees who troop to our public schools annually is a manifestation that people realize the value of education as the key to a better life. Education is perceived as a means by which people are ensured of a better future for themselves and for their children.
In as much as DepEd is committed to provide our students with a first class learning environment akin to that of private schools, such a task is vast and enormous. Chronic budgetary constraints and limited resources are some of the roadblocks, which the Department must hurdle. The delivery of quality education is hampered because funding allocation for it has not been able to match the frightening annual growth in student population. As a consequence, schools experience shortages in teachers, classrooms, textbooks, desks, learning facilities and nutritional aid. With a scenario such as this, it is no wonder that the achievement levels of our students are not at par with that of our Asian neighbors.
And as the government is unable to shoulder the responsibility of improving education by itself, there is a need to call on the private sector to recognize its role as a major stakeholder in the nation’s development, especially in the enhancement of the public education system. Corporate groups, non-government organizations, and civil society groups could be potential stakeholders in sustaining quality education in public schools. And it is thru the Department of Education’s Adopt-a-School Program, where these potential stakeholders can participate.
Implementing the Adopt-a-School Program
The Adopt-A-School Program aims to generate investments and support to education outside the funding mainstream and national budget. It was legally instituted by the passage of RA8525 in 1998, and was established to give private entities here and abroad the opportunity to become active partners in education by providing assistance on a short term or long-term basis in the upgrading and modernization of our public elementary and high schools.
Under the program, business groups, non-government organizations, and civil society groups can adopt any public school of their choice anywhere in the country. Adopting a school means providing the necessary support in the areas of, but not limited to infrastructure, teaching and skills development, learning support, computer and science laboratory equipment, and food and nutrition.
Developments under the Program
Since its kick-off in 2000, the Adopt-a-School Program has obtained a network of partners who/which volunteered to address the needs of the public schools. From 2000 to present, over P2.4 billion worth of donations has been generated for over 22,000 public schools nationwide.
Expanding the Program thru Brigada Eskwela
The feasibility of getting support from the community to ease the perennial woes of aging infrastructure, dilapidated structure and abandoned facilities that could pose safety hazard to the students has propelled the DepEd to launch Brigada Eskwela (Bayanihan Para Sa Paaralan)
Brigada Eskwela is a nationwide voluntary effort of teachers, parents, students, community members and other organizations to do minor repairs on their schools in preparation for the start of the school year. Launched in 2003, the activity encourages volunteers to provide a little bit of materials such as paint, cement, lumber and other materials, which could be used for building, as well as give manpower resources in the preparation of our schools. Donations from local businesses and other corporations are given in kind. For year 2005, community MOOE amounts to over P1 billion, covering 26,034 public schools or 61% of the total public schools all over the country.
The lessons of Adopt-A-School and Brigada Eskwela
But beyond the material and financial gains we have generated from Adopt-A-School and Brigada Eskwela, the true value of both projects is in the lessons learned from it. Society benefits not only from better classrooms and school campuses, it also benefits from the goodwill generated when people exert effort for the common good- hand in hand with their fellow man. Therefore, the true value of these initiatives is in how well we can teach our children the essence of community and of humanity-values we should teach each and every Filipino child.
For more information about the Adopt-A-School Program and Brigada Eskwela and how you or your organization can help, please contact Director Aurora Felizardo of the Adopt-A-School Secretariat at (02) 632-1361 to 71 local 2227 or 2223 or (02) 638-8637. (DepEd)