BUTUAN CITY, Agusan del Norte, Philippines - Southern Tagalog-A (Calabarzon) and Bicol emerged overall champions in the secondary and elementary individual writing competitions, respectively, during the 2011 National Schools Press Conference (NSPC) staged in this city over the weekend by the Department of Education (DepEd).
This was learned from DepEd Bureau of Secondary Education officials who announced the top seven winning regions during the culminating program of the week-long NSPC hosted by the Caraga Region using the Father Urios University (high school) as the competition's venue.
Education Undersecretary for Programs and Projects Yolanda S. Quijano, who was the closing rites speaker, explained that the NSPC, participated in by some 4,000 leading campus journalists and their school paper advisers from 17 regions, is the mental counterpart of the Palarong Pambansa - the country's premier schools sports festival.
The annual event is a major DepEd program designed to upgrade the journalistic skills of basic education students and at the same time promote a balance between freedom of expression and responsible journalism.
The Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) Region, headed by DepEd Regional Director Paraluman R. Giron, sizzled in high school English (E) and Filipino (F) news writing, sports writing, copy reading and headline writing, editorial cartooning, and editorial writing.
While Bicol made good in elementary feature writing, copy reading and headline writing, editorial writing, news writing, and editorial cartooning.
The other top regional winners in the secondary level write fest are Central Luzon which placed overall second, Caraga - third, Southern Mindanao - fourth, Northern Mindanao - fifth, Ilocos - sixth, and Southern Tagalog-B (Mimaropa) is seventh.
In the elementary level, Central Luzon still ranked No. 2; Central Visayas - No. 3, National Capital Region - No. 4, Cagayan Valley - No. 5; Calabarzon - No. 6, and Central Mindanao - No. 7.
