Only regional champs advance to NSPC 2026 — DepEd

The Department of Education dashed the hopes of student journalists seeking wider participation in the annual National Schools Press Conference (NSPC), announcing that only regional champions will advance to the national level.

DepEd Memorandum No. 021, s. 2026, dated March 19, states that only first-place winners in the Regional Schools Press Conference (RSPC) will qualify for the 2026 NSPC.

For individual categories, the memorandum specifies that only the “top one regional winner per medium” will advance, effectively restricting the national competition to regional champions.

For group categories, only one team per medium per region will be allowed to compete at the national level.

The NSPC is the country’s premier national competition for student journalists, bringing together top winners from division and regional press conferences.

The memorandum outlines a wide range of contest categories for both elementary and secondary levels, including news, feature, editorial, sports, and science and technology writing; copyreading and headline writing; photojournalism; editorial cartooning; and column writing.

Broadcast and multimedia events such as radio and TV scriptwriting, collaborative desktop publishing, and online publishing are also included. Mobile journalism will be featured as an exhibition event for secondary-level participants.

DepEd said the conduct of the NSPC is anchored on Republic Act No. 7079, or the Campus Journalism Act of 1991, and aligned with the goals of the K to 12 program to develop critical, principled, and responsible student journalists.

The 2026 NSPC will be held from April 13 to 17 in Ormoc City, Leyte, hosted by DepEd Region VIII, with participants expected to arrive on April 12.

Under the rules, each learner-participant may compete in only one event, whether individual or group.

The guidelines also stress strict adherence to intellectual property rules, warning that entries found to be plagiarized or improperly using AI-generated content may be disqualified, with decisions deemed final.

While only regional champions will advance, the top five winners in each contest category at the national level will still be recognized.

The guidelines follow earlier DepEd issuances on the conduct of division and regional press conferences, which serve as qualifying stages leading up to the national competition.

The provision has drawn calls from members of the campus journalism community to expand qualifiers to include the Top 3 winners per region, a setup used prior to the pandemic.

In response, Education Secretary Sonny Angara acknowledged the concerns but said the current policy is driven by practical considerations.

He explained that the “Top 1” format, first adopted during the pandemic, is being retained to better manage fiscal resources, particularly amid rising travel and logistical costs linked to the ongoing oil price increases.

Angara also cited the department’s effort to streamline co-curricular activities, saying the policy aims to balance opportunities for student competition while minimizing disruptions to instructional time and reducing administrative burden.

He added that maintaining the current format helps ensure that the NSPC remains “highly competitive” while staying logistically sustainable for participating regions, noting that the approach was also recommended during consultations with regional stakeholders.—MCG, GMA Integrated News