DOZENS of pupils from 16 public and private elementary schools under the Guagua West District braved the monsoon rains on Friday, July 20, to undergo two days of journalism training in preparation for the coming District Schools Press Conference here.

The event is pursuant to Division Memorandum No. 134 that mandates the hosting of trainings for pupils and school paper advisers. English campus journalism coordinator Leila Pecson said that the suspension of classes due to the monsoon rains did not hinder the students from attending the seminar.

Some 19 private and public schools in the area will compete in the district conference this August. The district conference is a qualifier for student journalists who would like to compete in the division level of the conference which is a yearly competition in the rudiments of journalism writing from news, feature and sports writing among others.

This leads to the National Schools Press Conference (NSPC) which is the highest competition for journalism for both private schools and public elementary and high schools in the Philippines.

The journalism contest starts in the provincial level with the Division Schools Press Conference, where the top three to seven in each category depending on the size of the certain region qualifies to the Regional Schools Press Conference, and from which the top three will be chosen to represent their respective regions in the NSPC.

Collaborative media categories like radio broadcasting and desktop publishing are also anticipated events in the competition.