PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd), recognizing the growing importance of campus journalism in public schools, has chosen 15 regional pilot high schools in the country to implement its Special Program in Journalism (SPJ) starting next school year.
A directive received here early this month by DepEd region 9 director Walter Albos from Education Secretary Armin Luistro said six of the SPJ regional pilot schools are located in Mindanao, three in the Visayas, and six in Luzon.
Luistro’s order identified the six SPJ pilot learning centers in the Southern Philippines as Zamboanga del Norte National High School (NHS) in Dipolog City for Western Mindanao or Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9), Misamis Oriental Comprehensive NHS in Cagayan de Oro City for Northern Mindanao (Region 10), Davao City NHS for Southern Mindanao (Region 11), Ireneo Santiago NHS in General Santos City for Central Mindanao (Region 12), Bayugan NHS in Agusan del Sur for Caraga (Region 13), and Maluso NHS in Basilan for Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
The Luzon-based pilot institutions were listed by Luistro as Mangaldan NHS in Pangasinan for Ilocos (Region 1), Don Mariano Marcos NHS in Cagayan for Cagayan Valley (Region 2), San Jose del Monte NHS in Bulacan for Central Luzon (Region 3), Tanza NHS in Cavite for Southern Tagalog-A (Calabarzon), Jose Lleido NHS in Marinduque for Southern Tagalog-B (Mimaropa), Naga City Science HS for Bicol (Region 5), Pines City HS in Baguio City for Cordillera Administrative Region(CAR), and North Fairview NHS in Quezon City for National Capital Region (NCR).
For the Visayas, the pilot schools are Oton NHS in Iloilo City for Western Visayas (Region 6), Cebu City Science HS for Central Visayas (Region 7), and Palo NHS in Leyte for Eastern Visayas (Region 8).
Luistro required the principals of the SPJ learning centers and two of their teachers (one each for English and Journalism) to attend an earlier week-long national training-workshop on the pilot enforcement of the SPJ in their respective stations at the DepEd Ecotech Center in Cebu City.
Luistro’s directive explains that the training-workshop sought to: a) equip the educator-participants with functional understanding of the SPJ curriculum documents, b) establish concrete knowledge on how the SPJ Curriculum Guide and Teaching Guide can be best utilized during the course implementation, and c) identify potential problems and/or issues which need to be addressed that may have an effect on the enforcement of the program.
He expressed optimism that the SPJ program will ultimately help upgrade the journalistic (writing) skills and knowledge of high school students some of who, he said, might later wind up as professional media practitioners in the national or local levels.