BENJAMIN Franklin said, "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."

While the Department of Education (DepEd) is mainly tasked to provide quality, accessible education, the outpouring of support and commitment from community stakeholders and government partners indeed highly needed to ensure that no Filipino learner will be left behind.

This shows the true essence of bayanihan, or the spirit of working together towards a common goal, the unity of people who share the same aspirations and mind-set, and thus strongly achieve the outcomes that each and every one desire for.

The spirit of volunteerism and public-private partnership is based on Republic Act 8525 or the Adopt-a-School Law of 1998. Under the said law, there are four Adopt-a-School Program Packages of Support of Interventions which include the School Facilities Improvement and IT Support Package, Learners' and Teachers' Support Package, Last Mile Learners' Support Package, and the Senior High School Program Support Package.

For this current year, the total amount of resources generated under the Adopt-a-School Program in Region III is P1.05 billion, with P641 million donations for the School Facilities Improvement and IT Support Package.

To maximize civil participation and utilize local resources to improve all public schools, the Department of Education launched, the National Schools Maintenance Week or Brigada Eskwela was institutionalized through the issuance of DepEd Order No. 24, s. 2008.

For 2019, the Brigada Eskwela implementation in Central Luzon generated a total of P984.9 million and a total of 1,901,679 volunteers.

The profound collaboration geared towards the betterment of the state of education in the Philippines is an attestation that education is everyone's responsibility. And with that, let me once again thank our committed partners and other stakeholders who help us realize our mission to provide quality, equitable, culture-based, and complete basic education to all our learners.

Indeed, there is no big or small contribution as long as we ensure that everybody gives his or her own part, then we can all be rest assured that we are making a brighter future for all the Filipino children.