MANILA, Philippines - The public is being urged to help make schools disaster-resilient as the Department of Education (DepEd) starts today the annual “Brigada Eskwela†or the National Schools Maintenance Week.
“For Brigada Eskwela, we are enjoining the volunteers to help the schools identify things that make them unsafe and to focus their intervention on these things,†DepEd Undersecretary Mario Deriquito said.
Simultaneous activities will be conducted in public schools nationwide from today until May 24.
Deriquito said DepEd has formulated guidelines on how to make schools safer.
Brigada Eskwela encourages individuals and private firms to clean classrooms two weeks before school opening.
DepEd said despite damaged classrooms, classes in Region 8 (Eastern Visayas) would reopen on June 2, along with all public schools nationwide.
Education Secretary Armin Luistro is expected to be in Leyte today for the turnover of schools repaired by the Korean military.
In the National Capital Region (NCR), the Brigada Eskwela will kick off at the Dalandanan National High School in Valenzuela City.