CEBU CITY (PNA) – The week-long “Brigada Eskwela” has evolved into a brand new packaging of cooperation between the educators and the parents of schoolchildren amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Department of Education (DepEd) in Central Visayas said on Monday.

This, as DepEd-7 concluded the week-long Brigada Eskwela for parents and teachers in a home-based learning setting.

The activity this year started with the Partnership Webinar Series #2 that oriented DepEd's household partners or parents on the facilitation of the students’ home-based learning and to rediscover their roles in remote learning under the new normal.

It was participated in by 3,500 parents from Regions 6, 7, and 8.

“The Brigada Eskwela today is given a brand new packaging, but it is built around the same spirit of cooperation all in the name of quality education,” DepEd-7 Regional Director Salustiano Jimenez said.

“DepEd’s goal of communicating to our parents and stakeholders the set of working plans that we at the DepEd-Central Visayas have prepared to blaze the trail of the new normal. We involve our immediate community because you, our dear viewers, are our reasons for being," he added.

The webinar consisted of six sessions with the following topics: parents and teachers in a home-based learning setting; how to motivate your child to learn at home; child protection: positive non-violence discipline; assessor of children’s self-directed learning; how to encourage self-directed learning; and mobilizer for community learning: a conversation with parents.

The sessions discussed the general concept of the various distance learning delivery modalities and at the same time, taught the parents on how to act as tutor to replicate the instruction processes in schools and to identify and appreciate the new role of parents and teachers in distance learning.

During the webinar, it was also reported that the Brigada Eskwela program has generated additional resources for DepEd for school repairs and maintenance, improvement of facilities, and information campaign and educational advocacies.

For calendar year 2015-2019, DepEd has generated P29.5 billion worth of donations in kind and value of volunteer man-hours.

As of June, DepEd has already gotten P1.2 billion worth of in-kind donations consisting of tents, thermal scanners, sanitizing materials, cleaning tools, disinfectant, personal protective equipment, face masks, hygiene kits, blood donation, and food packs.

These were distributed to learners, DepEd teaching and non-teaching personnel, front-liners, underprivileged families, local communities, senior citizens and volunteers.

Meanwhile, as of Aug. 24, the DepEd also reported a total of 23,643,113 enrollees nationwide from private and state universities and colleges.

Of the total, there are 1,870,781 enrollees in Region 7.

This year’s theme, “Brigada Eskwela: Bayanihan sa Pag-aaral ng mga Bata,” focused on partnership activity and engagement and keeping alive the bayanihan spirit.