The Division English Schools Press Conference (DESPC) opened on February 4–5 in Santa Rita.
The event gathered elementary campus journalists from across the division for what is widely regarded as the Olympics of school journalism.
The event was attended by Department of Education officials led by Schools Division Superintendent Romeo Alip, and Santa Rita Mayor Renan Calo.
The two officials underscored the importance of campus journalism in developing critical thinking, communication skills, and responsible media practice among students
Participants competed in individual categories including News Writing, Editorial Writing, Feature Writing, Sports Writing, Science and Technology Writing, Copy Reading and Headline Writing, Photojournalism, Editorial Cartooning, and Column Writing, as well as group events such as Radio Broadcasting and Scriptwriting, TV Scriptwriting and Broadcasting, Collaborative Desktop Publishing, and Online Publishing.
The two-day conference served not only as a competition but also as a training ground to hone journalistic excellence and identify qualifiers who will represent their schools in higher-level press conferences, specifically in the Regional Press Conference to be held in Baler Aurora.