THE Regional Schools Press Conference (RSPC) for Central Luzon schools will be held in Malolos City from December 19 to 21.

Campus journalists and their school paper advisers from the different Divisions of Pampanga, Bataan, Bulacan, Aurora, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija will be trooping to Malolos City for the annual competition that will determine the winners and qualifiers to the National Schools Press Conference (NSPC).

The RSPC aims to “demonstrate understanding of the importance of journalism by expressing it through different journalistic endeavors and approaches; provide a venue for an enriching learning experience for students interested in journalism as a career or those who intend to use skill sets learned through campus journalism to give them a better edge in their chosen careers.”

The annual meet is pursuant to Republic Act 7079 or the Campus Journalism Act of 1991.

This year’s theme is “Fostering 21st Century Skills and Character-Based Education through Campus Journalism.”

Organized annually by the Department of Education (DepED), the NSPC is the highest journalism competition for students in the elementary and secondary levels. The competition starts in the respective clusters and districts were schools send their writers to qualify for the division level of the competition. Winners then compete for slots into the RSPC.

Under the individual categories, students compete in various contests like news, feature, editorial and sports writing; as well as copyreading and headline writing plus science and technology (S&T) writing; photojournalism, editorial cartooning and column writing.

On the other hand, the group contests include radio script writing and broadcasting, collaborative and desktop publishing, TV scriptwriting and broadcasting (for secondary level).