By TONY PE. RIMANDO
KALIBU, Aklan — Aklan, the home of many of the country’s leading community journalists, will play host to this school year’s National Schools Press Conference (NSPC) which the Department of Education (DepEd) has scheduled on Feb. 20-24, 2006, in this capital town, popularly known as the origin of the colorful Ati-atihan festival.
DepEd officer-in-charge (OIC) Undersecretary Fe A. Hidalgo said the NSPC, to be administered jointly by the Bureau of Elementary Education and the Bureau of Secondary Education, will be participated in by some 2,500 top public and private elementary and secondary school campus writers, together with their school paper teacher-advisers, from 17 regions.
Hidalgo said this school year’s NSPC, considered the mental counterpart of the Palarong Pambansa (the nation’s premier sportsfest), has the theme, "Responsible and Quality Campus Journalism: Gearing UP to the Challenge of Schools First Initiative (SFI).
She said the NSPC, whose staging is mandated by the Campus Journalism Act of 1991, specifically seeks to enhance journalism competencies of school children, serves as a forum for communicating through journalistic approaches the objectives of SFI, and demonstrate commitment to the challenges of SFI.
