AFTER feeling glad of the news that his city high school alma mater won the best brigada eskwela implementer, Jack went back to school.
“I’m not kidding,” he said to his colleague.
“How would a vast centralized school like his alma mater win over that of other entries? I mean, the well deserving entries?” so he went to principal Brinda to pat her back, but it seems a pouting officer-in-charge (OIC) is the only personnel around.
“Not again,” Jack thinks, “Don’t tell me that the principal is a seminarian, lest she became the local version of ‘The nun’.”
“Do you mean ‘the none’?” jointed the OIC. Together with two head teachers they went to Dipulug City for the prize. While he is about to sit in the sofa of the office and flick through the history of the brigada eskwela, Jack asked, “Is the prize very heavy, why does the principal need two helpers?”
Brigada eskwela or the National Schools Maintenance Week was a memorandum signed by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2005. The noble intent is community involvement. That is, there shall be a scenario where all stakeholders – parents, teachers, agencies of the government, and private person help one another in preparing the school every start of the school year.
With that definition jack was more confused as several questions pop in his mind. “Are public schools funds intended for infrastructures insufficient? Does it need more support?” As he reads further, his mind said no. The intention of the memorandum is for cooperation or bayanihan among stakeholders in order to feel the spirit of a collective effort.
“In that sense, how did city high school won instead of collective effort, its collective payment?” Jack is referring to parents who cannot render services like painting and other classroom repairs, but were asked to donate money instead.
So where is the spirit of bayanihan there? Nothing was mentioned in the memorandum, except local businesses.
When Jack was involved in a school enrollment for those who did not attend the brigada were encouraged to put donations in a cartoon box. Jack and a senior mentor were in charge of the enrollment. Feeling exhausted of the activity, Jack does not expect anyone to enroll. Alas, a grandson of a police general together with his father entered the door. The senior mentor handled the enrollment since the parent have not attended the brigada, the enrollee was asked to give donations. The father opened his wallet and plucked a yellow bill – the lowest in a bundle and inserted it into the box.
When the enrollee left, the senior mentor called out Jack and said: “Get a twig and take out that yellow bill and buy some lunch.” With his idealism, honor, and honesty, Jack protested. But uttering with a higher tone, the senior mentor retorted and spoke, “Jack even if you combine all the names of the class sections, those will not feed us. You see, our superiors are sitting pretty in their offices and none of them bothered to check if we are doing well.” In the end, credits belong to them. To be continued...