IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2017) 8-2

Research article
erd

Brigada Eskwela and Disaster Preparedness as an
Approach to Pupils’ Academic Achievement
NEIL MICHAEL G. OLAIVAR*
Casate Elementary School, Ubay, Bohol, Philippines
Email: neilmichaelolaivar1991@yahoo.com

REGUCIVILLA A. POBAR
Bohol Island State University, Tagbilaran City, Philippines
Email:regupobar@gmail.com
Received 23 January 2017

Accepted 10 November 2017(*Corresponding Author)

Abstract Brigada Eskwela is a volunteerism program which is annually launched to prepare
the public schools for the opening of classes enlivening the spirit of solidarity among theschool personnel, pupils, parents, and rural residents. Classroom repair, furniture repainting,and school ground cleaning are some of the Brigada Eskwela activities that are geared
towards making schools disaster-prepared, ecologically-conscious, and conducive to learning.
Having these annual activities along with the schools’ Disaster Preparedness program assuressmooth opening of classes because teachers and pupils will no longer clean and set up theirclassrooms during the first day of school. This study aimed to determine the schools’
implementation of Brigada Eskwela and Disaster Preparedness Program in relation to theacademic achievement of pupils in Ubay 1, Ubay 2, and Ubay 3 Districts of Bohol. This
employed descriptive-normative survey. A total of 45 elementary schools were surveyed
including 45 school heads, 422 teachers, and 180 rural residents. The findings showed thatthe Brigada Eskwela implementation was evaluated "excellent" so with the disaster
preparedness as “very high capacity”. In turn, these programs had significantly improved thepupils’ academic achievement and had raised awareness among the rural residents theimportance of culture of safety. School heads played an important role in the implementationof these programs. Their managerial skills potentially affected Brigada Eskwela
implementation and disaster preparedness of the schools. It was then recommended that therural residents may strengthen its disaster preparedness through establishing a Family
Disaster Plan to avoid casualties from any hazard and calamity that may occur. Moreover,
Brigada Eskwela should also be implemented in the private schools to intensify partnershiptowards their stakeholders.
Keywords BrigadaEskwela, disaster preparedness, rural residents, volunteerism

INTRODUCTION
Angela (2013) stressed that positive learning environment, either in school or home setting, isimportant for a child. Healthy and safe learning environment denotes a child-friendly and hazardfree classroom where children feel safe and valued at all times.
Through the spirit of volunteerism and public-private collaboration for Philippine education,
the Republic Act 8525, also known as the “Adopt-A-School Act”, was crafted in 1998. With the
Adopt-A-School Program (ASP), the Department of Education launched the National Schools
Maintenance Week in May 2003 and was institutionalized on May 2008 by Department of Education
Order No. 24, s. 2008. Dubbed, “Brigada Eskwela”, the program enlivened the spirit of volunteerism
through bringing together teachers, parents and community members every third week of May towork together in repairing and preparing public schools for the class opening. It is also participatedby individual, private organizations, business sectors, local and national government agencies which
together share their efforts, time and resources (Vargas, 2016).

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On the other hand, Department of Education Order No. 83 or the Disaster Preparedness
Measures for Schools mandated public schools to be disaster-resilient by implementing measures forthe protection against rains or floods of all school paraphernalia like textbooks, teaching manuals,
school records and equipment; designing orientation to all pupils and students on disaster
preparedness; conducting of regular disaster drills; properly informing pupils and students on earlysigns of weather disturbances and their effects; and, observing policies in coordination with the local
government units on decisions regarding the suspension of classes during disasters or calamities.
In addition, UNESCO (2013) elaborated three pillars of comprehensive school safety, namely,
the Safe Learning Facilities; the school Disaster Management; and the Risk Reduction and Resilience
Education. These pillars were adopted by the Department of Education in accord to their Disaster
Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM).
Ayeni, et al (2011) concluded that the collaborative effort between the school personnel andother stakeholders is greatly important in the success towards the development of learning
infrastructure and environment and to any projects a certain school may implement. After all, themost benefited individuals of such are the children themselves. Hence, it is of great importance toestablish a close monitoring and evaluation of all the programs of the Department of Education likethe Brigada Eskwela and Disaster Preparedness to make sure that these programs continuously
respond to the ultimate goal of the department – the welfare and total development of the children.
OBJECTIVE
The researchers would like to investigate the status of implementation of Brigada Eskwela andDisaster Preparedness programs in public elementary schools. This further evaluated the influenceof the school heads’ managerial skills towards the implementation of these programs and their impact
towards pupils’ academic achievement.
METHODOLOGYThis study utilized descriptive-normative survey with documentary analysis. School heads’
managerial skills were measured using adopted questionnaires from the study of Timbal (2012).
Meanwhile, the Brigada Eskwela and Disaster Preparedness were assessed using the standard
checklist issued by the Department of Education. The respondents of the study were all the teachersand school heads of subject elementary schools and selected rural residents of Ubay I, Ubay II, andUbay III Districts in Bohol. There were a total of 647 respondents, comprising 422 teachers, 45
school heads, and 180 rural residents. The National Achievement Test mean score of the pupils forthe school year 2014-2015 was used as basis for their academic achievement.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The Brigada Eskwela program of the Department of Education of the Philippines demands schoolheads’ managerial skills. It became one of the Department’s initiatives of enjoining the rural residents
and local communities to respond to the needs of public schools in the Philippines. This referred tothe advocacy known as National Schools Maintenance Week.
As reflected in Table 1, school heads generally performed ‘very often’ the managerial skills
they possessed in the school operation. In particular, they excelled equally both in conceptual andtechnical skills. Basically, conceptual skill includes the ability of the school heads in updating andcoaching his teachers on recent trends in education; applying logic in effectively solving problems;
allocating responsibility for continuous improvement; and flexibly modifying course to suit changing
circumstances. Technical skill, on the other hand, is about being computer-literate; regularmonitoring and evaluation of school projects; managing people and resources; maintaining order anddiscipline in school; and identifying smarter ways to do things.

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Table 1 School heads’ managerial skills as perceived by the respondents
Parameters
Conceptual Skill
Communication
Skill
Human Relation
Skill
Technical Skill

School Heads
N=45
WM
DV
3.40

Always

3.23

Very
Often

3.28

Always

3.34

AlwaysTeachers
N=422
WM
DV
Very
3.22
Often
Very
3.13
Often
Very
3.18
Often
3.28

AlwaysRural Residents
N=180
WM
DV
Very
3.19
Often
Very
3.11
Often
Very
3.15
Often
Very
3.19
Often

Overall
WM

DV

Rank

3.27

Always

1.5

Very
Often
Very
Often

3.16
3.20
3.27

Always43
1.5

Although perceived as ‘very often’ done, it didn’t imply that the school heads’ communicationand human relation skills were alarming. Communication skill requires a two-way process, theconcept of listening and speaking. Further, it refers to ones’ ability to understand and to be understoodby others in the most possible way. Meanwhile, school heads’ human relation skills involve
establishing good relationship towards others; understanding the social fabric of the organization;
being sensitive to others’ feelings; keeping promises and commitments; and handling difficult people
with diplomacy and tact. All these skills are of importance for school leaders to effectively do thetasks expected from them. According to the study of Uko (2015), effective management is a precursor
to facilities sustainability, utilization and maintenance as it enhances effective productivity. Hence,
it can be said that a school head with good managerial skills could effectively facilitate the schools’
Brigada Eskwela and Disaster Preparedness programs.
Table 2 Respondents’ perception towards schools’ Brigada Eskwela implementation

DV
VG
E
E
E
VG

Rural
Residents
N=180
WM
DV
2.06
VG
2.51
E
2.58
E
2.61
E
2.20
VG

WM
2.10
2.50
2.65
2.58
2.24

DV
VG
E
E
E
VG

E

2.39

2.41

E

School Heads
N=45

Teachers
N=422

Enrolment Preparation
School Leadership
Teachers’ Preparation
Learners’ Status
Physical Plant/Facilities

WM
2.13
2.48
2.74
2.48
2.27

DV
VG
E
E
E
E

WM
2.10
2.51
2.63
2.65
2.24

COMPOSITE MEAN

2.42

E

2.43

Parameters

E

Overall
Rank
5
3
1
2
4

As shown in Table 2, the parameters included in the Brigada Eskwela were enrolment
preparation, school leadership, teachers’ preparation, learner’s status and physical plant/ facilities. It
shows that as far as Brigada Eskwela was concerned, respondents perceived that teachers were morethan prepared. This simply unveiled the idea that prior to the opening of classes, all the teaching
paraphernalia like lesson plans, teaching manuals, curriculum guides, instructional materials, school
register, class records, and even the classroom structuring were ready for use. Furthermore, this
implied that teachers were efficient enough to prepare for their assigned tasks as curriculum
implementers.
The learners’ status which included the actual attendance of the students per class or the teacherpupil ratio was excellently facilitated by the schools and their staffs to make sure that quality
education in every classroom was maintained. Moreover, the aspect on school leadership was also
carried out by the school heads, teachers and stakeholders well. This covered the School
Improvement Plan (SIP), Annual Implementation Plan (AIP), Annual Procurement Plan (APP),
supervisory plan, calendar of school programs for the entire school year, distribution of teachingloads for teachers, project work and financial plan, advocacy plan, monitoring and evaluation plan,and transparency measures of expenditures.
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In consonance, Brigada Eskwela program was also perceived to be of potential help in preparing
the school facilities before the classes started. This included the repair of classroom and its furniture,
water drainage system and sanitation maintenance, rehabilitation of the school garden, and the likewhich made the school child-friendly and a zone of peace. Lastly, the program has also showedsignificant contribution to the schools’ enrolment preparation. This finding suggested that the
information dissemination pertaining to enrolment including the hanging of streamers, establishingof information action centre and help desks, education caravan, and community immersion; rigid andstrict adherence to No-Collection-Policy; family mapping; networking with stakeholders; andsoliciting school supplies and uniforms for the less privileged pupils were a contributory factor toincreased enrolment.
In the overall, the Brigada Eskwela implementation was rated “excellent”. With this, it can be
implied that there was a strong partnership between the school and the rural residents. Furthermore,this proved that the objectives of the said program have been achieved through the spirit ofvolunteerism. This result agreed to the study conducted by Celestial (2015) which stated that Brigada
Eskwela was highly implemented by public elementary schools from its pre-implementation to thepost-implementation stage.
On the other hand, one of the targets of Brigada Eskwela is to ease the public schools’
vulnerability to both natural and human-made disasters. Hence, the Department of Education issued
the Comprehensive Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) in Basic Education
Framework under Department Order No. 37, s. 2015 to guide DRRM efforts in the basic education
sector towards resilience-building in offices and schools, and to ensure that quality education was
continuously provided and prioritized even during disasters and/or emergencies. This framework
served as basis towards the attainment of Department’s three education outcomes, namely: Access,Quality, and Governance (AQG), and maintained a learner-centered, rights-based implementation at
all levels. It set the direction and priority areas for DRRM in the Department of Education while
maintaining the prerogative of field offices to decide on what specific activities to undertake
depending on their exposure to hazards, available resources and existing partnerships and linkages.
In order to achieve the education outcome as to Access, DRRM interventions, policies andmechanisms should be in place to ensure the immediate resumption of classes after the occurrenceof any hazard or calamity so that school children will not be hindered from the access of learning
services. Meanwhile, even if the concepts on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change
Adaptation (CCA) have been integrated in the K to 12 Curriculum, the constraints to access, alongwith the psychosocial condition of school children and teachers, affect the quality of education. Thus,in order to reinforce the education outcome as to Quality, there is a need to identify strategies
including support materials attuned to the learning needs of children and teaching strategies that
could adapt to emergency situations. On the other hand, with the acknowledgement that DRRM is acomplementation of infrastructural and non-infrastructural interventions, Governance comes crucial
in the implementation. This will determine the institutionalization and implementation of systems
and protocols that will be issued. In this study, these three education outcomes served as theparameters to evaluate the implementation of the disaster preparedness of the subject schools.
Table 3 Respondents’ perception towards schools’ disaster preparedness
PARAMETERS
Access
Quality
Governance
COMPOSITE MEAN

School Heads
N=45
WM
DV
0.90
VH
0.97
VH
0.94
VH
0.94
VH

Teachers
N=422
WM
DV
0.85
VH
0.89
VH
0.88
VH
0.87
VH

Rural Residents
N=180
WM
DV
0.86
VH
0.88
VH
0.92
VH
0.89
VH

Overall
WM
0.87
0.91
0.91
0.90

DV
VH
VH
VH
VH

Rank
3
1.5
1.5

Table 3 showcases the status of implementation of Disaster Preparedness wherein both the
Quality and Governance got the highest rating. This finding suggested that the teachers, pupils,
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regular conduct of evacuation drills like earthquake, fire, tsunami, flooding, and locks down drill.
DRR and CCA were also evidently integrated in actual classroom instruction whereby disasterprevention measures were also taught. In addition, as to governance, the schools had strong
partnerships with external stakeholders in order to address the DRR and CCA related needs of theschool; and a well-organized and capacitated DRRM Committee including the rural residents wascreated and made functional. Lastly, an existing emergency incident control system that included
accessible student emergency contact numbers and school records back-up system was wellestablished. To sum up, the overall implementation of schools’ disaster preparedness was with very
high capacity.
Another target of Brigada Eskwela is to achieve higher learning outcomes of pupils throughestablishing an environment that supports learning. Herein, the study utilized the results of National
Achievement Test, a standardized test annually administered by the Department of Education in
partnership with National Educational Testing Resource Center (NETRC).
Table 4 National Achievement Test (NAT) mean percentage scores
n=45

Level

Range

Frequency

Percentage (%)

Superior

90-1004

8.89

Meeting Standard

75-89

33

73.33

Below Standard
Poor

35-74
0-34

8
0

17.78
0.00

45

100%

Total

Table 4 exhibits the mean percentage scores in National Achievement Test. Clearly, majorityof the elementary schools had mean percentage scores categorized as “meeting standard”. The NAT
results indicated commendable academic performance of the same schools with excellent Brigada
Eskwela and very highly capacitated Disaster Preparedness. This implied that Brigada Eskwela andDisaster Preparedness were potential factors that affected the performance of the pupils.
CONCLUSION
In the light of the findings of the study, it can be concluded that the school heads’ managerial skills
played a vital role in the successful implementation of the different programs and projects of theschool such as Brigada Eskwela and Disaster Preparedness, leading to its ultimate goal – the quality
and relevant education for the pupils. Brigada Eskwela and Disaster Preparedness did not only makethe public schools accessible to all, conducive to learning, ecologically-conscious, and disasterresilient but also promoted awareness among the rural residents the importance of culture of safety.
The rural residents have also shown positive response to the said programs through actively engaging
in the planning and implementation. Moreover, these programs, with the help of a committed andskilled school heads as the mediator, have been found out to be potential factors affecting the
National Achievement Test (NAT) mean percentage scores of the pupils.
RECOMMENDATION
It is highly recommended that Brigada Eskwela and Disaster Preparedness Programs be implemented
in all private schools not only to become disaster-prepared or to increase their pupils’ academic
achievement but also to intensify the good rapport between the schools and their stakeholders. Also,
the rural residents may strengthen their disaster preparedness through crafting a Family Disaster Plan
to prevent casualties from any hazard and calamity that may occur.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSⒸ ISERD

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The researchers would like to extend so deeply their utmost gratitude first and above all to the Creator
for the wisdom and good health, to the BISU officials and the Superintendent of the Department of
Education, Division of Bohol for allowing the conduct of the study; to the administrators of the three
districts of Ubay, to the respondents for their cooperation in answering the questionnaires, to all
people who may not be mentioned but had become an instrument in realizing this humble piece ofwork, the heartfelt thanks of the researchers go to them.
REFERENCES
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quality assurance practice in secondary schools in Ondo State, South-West, Nigeria.
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Brigada Eskwela Manual for School Heads. 2009. http://www.deped.gov./cpanel/uploads/issuance/mg/Brigada Eskwela manual (retrieved on October 29, 2014).
Celestial, M. 2010. Extent of implementation of brigada eskwela, Basis for an action plan. University of
Mindanao, Davao City. https://goo.gl/a4m9dg (retrieved).
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Vargas, E. 2016. BrigadaEskwela. http://udyong.net/teachers-corner/7657, http://www.deped.gov.ph/sites/
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