Davao Region rules 2024 National Schools Press Conference
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 13 July) – Davao Region emerged as the overall champion in the 2024 National Schools Press Conference (NSPC) in Carcar City, Cebu, breaking Calabarzon’s nine-year winning streak, a feat that officials attributed to heightened collaborative efforts among its school divisions.
This is the region’s first championship title in the national campus journalism competition.
DepEd Region XI spokesperson Dodong Atillo said their training efforts and unity among the 11 school divisions led to the harvest of 18 titles in secondary-level individual and group events, and 14 wins in elementary-level group and individual events.
“We always ranked lower in the previous years, so our first challenge was to go against the very best in the country. But thanks to the recalibrated collaborative training, mentorship, and initiatives of all our student journalists, their coaches, and the heads of DepEd Davao Region, they never lost focus to overcome this,” Atillo told Mindanews in an interview.
Davao Region was last year’s first runner-up, falling behind Calabarzon by only a few points.
One competition standout was secondary-level English news writing champion Chelsea Jamias of San Pedro College, who attributed the gradual improvement in her writing to the region’s intensified training efforts.
“The region put together an intensive training of two days of endless writing and critiquing. Not only did I have to warm up to writing again, I also had to realign my writing style to better fit their standards in the nationals,” Jamias said.
Meanwhile, Rey Mark Caputol of Panabo City National High School, who ranked 5th in the secondary level English sports writing competition described the strategy as a “rocky road” due to the persistent challenge of completing articles within a tight one-hour time frame.
“It is difficult for me to finish an article in just one hour and to find a good and proper angle of a game. But due to the intensive training and continuous practice, I noticed that my writeups have really improved,” Capitol said in mixed English and Cebuano.
Unlike in the previous years, Davao Region started its preparations with a three-round elimination system to screen their NSPC participants, resulting in one qualifier per event.
Jamias’ coach Jecy Opada recalled how steering away from the traditional single-round elimination process was “exhausting for journalists,” but also “produced the best,” to ensure that only the most consistent and technically-skilled campus journalists were selected.
“During the regionals, there were three rounds of eliminations to select the best scribes from 11 divisions in the Davao Region, ultimately resulting in one winner and national qualifier. That alone is a feat to conquer,” Opada said.
NSPC 2024, themed “Galing, Talino at Husay ng mga Batang Makabansa sa Diwa ng MATATAG na Adhika,” hosted 3000 campus journalists from public and private schools nationwide from July 8 to 12, through individual writing and group radio, television, and desktop publishing competitions.
The annual event is governed by Republic Act 7079, also known as the Campus Journalism Act of 1991, which mandates the promotion of campus journalism as a means to develop the journalistic skills of students in elementary and secondary schools nationwide. (Alyssa Ilaguison/UPMin intern)
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