By Merlina Hernando-Malipot
The Department of Education (DepEd) has announced that Region II, specifically Tuguegarao City in Cagayan, will be the host of the 2020 National Schools Press Conference (NSPC).
DepEd Undersecretary and Spokesperson Annalyn Sevilla (Department of Education-Philippines Official facebook page/ MANILA BULLETIN)
In DepEd Memorandum No. 176, s. of 2019 signed by Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla, the agency said that next year’s NSPC will be conducted through its Bureau of Curriculum Development (BCD).
With the theme “Empowering Communities through Campus Journalism,” the 2020 NSPC will be held from Feb.17 to 21. The NSPC provides a venue where students can demonstrate their understanding of the importance of journalism by expressing it through different journalistic endeavors and approaches.
DepEd reiterated its full support for all Filipino campus journalists as it strives to equip them, through the NSPC, not just with skills and competencies but also with the “values and experiences they need to help them realize their full potentials.”
The conduct of the NSPC is pursuant to Republic Act (RA) No. 7079 or the Campus Journalism Act of 1991 and DepEd Order No. 47 s. of 2010.
Sevilla said the conduct of the 2020 NSPC also aims to “sustain advocacy on social consciousness and environmental awareness” as well as “provide a venue for enriching learning experience for students interested in journalism as a career or those who intend to use skills sets learned through campus journalism to give them better edge in their chosen careers.”
She added that the NSPC further seeks to “promote responsible journalism and fair and ethical use of social media” and to “enhance journalistic competence through healthy and friendly competitions.”
The NSPC consists of individual and group contests, school paper contests, and concurrent sessions with workshops. The individual contests include News Writing, Features Writing, Editorial Writing, Sports Writing, Copyreading and Headline Writing, Science and Technology Writing, Photojournalism, Editorial Cartooning, and Column Writing (for exhibition only).
Meanwhile, the School Paper Contests will cover the News Section, Features Section, Editorial Section, Science and Technology Section, Sports Section, and Layout & Page Design.
Likewise, the Group Contests are Radio Script Writing and Broadcasting Contests, Collaborative Desktop Publishing (CPD) Contest, Online Publishing Contest (for secondary level only), and TV Script Writing and Broadcasting Contests (for secondary level only).
Recognizing and respecting intellectual property rights, Sevilla said that DepEd adheres to rules concerning plagiarism.
The agency reiterated its stand “to disqualify school papers found to have copied published texts, graphics, and other materials without duly acknowledging their sources, adding that “any form of plagiarism in all competitions as proven by the board of judges shall be a ground for disqualification.”