In the Philippines, a “Schools Press Conference” (SPC) is not a press briefing — it is a competition. Every public school runs one, feeding results up through District, Division, Regional and finally the National Schools Press Conference (NSPC), all under a specific law: Republic Act No. 7079, the Campus Journalism Act of 1991. Thousands of student writers, photographers and cartoonists compete every year, and almost nothing published online explains how the judging actually works — the real weightage behind a News Writing score, why every category runs twice, or what changed when Mobile Journalism was added in 2024. This article covers what DepEd’s own memoranda and scoresheets verify, and how that structure maps onto a competition platform built for exactly this kind of judged, multi-level event.
Ten individual contests, judged in two languages, at two grade bands
The NSPC’s Individual Contests cover ten writing and multimedia categories, each run separately for Elementary (Grades 1–6) and Secondary (Grades 7–12) writers. The twist that makes this genuinely different from every performance-based festival on this site: every category runs in both English and Filipino as two separate contests, not one contest with a language field. A school can send one contestant per category per language — so a single item like News Writing is really four entries on the schedule once you multiply by level and language.
| Contest | Category | Runs in |
|---|---|---|
| News Writing | Creative Writing | English & Filipino, Elementary & Secondary |
| Feature Writing | Creative Writing | English & Filipino, Elementary & Secondary |
| Editorial Writing | Creative Writing | English & Filipino, Elementary & Secondary |
| Sports Writing | Creative Writing | English & Filipino, Elementary & Secondary |
| Copyreading and Headline Writing | Creative Writing | English & Filipino, Elementary & Secondary |
| Science and Technology Writing | Creative Writing | English & Filipino, Elementary & Secondary |
| Column Writing | Creative Writing | English & Filipino, Elementary & Secondary |
| Photojournalism | Multimedia | English & Filipino, Elementary & Secondary |
| Editorial Cartooning | Art | English & Filipino, Elementary & Secondary |
| Mobile Journalism | Multimedia | English & Filipino, Secondary only |
This template covers the Individual Contests only. The same competition also runs Group Contests (Radio/TV Broadcasting, Collaborative Desktop Publishing, Online Publishing) and a separate School Paper contest judging an entire student publication section by section — real, documented parts of the NSPC, just outside what this article verifies.
The published scoring split — verified for five of the ten contests
DepEd’s own scoresheets give a clean, weighted breakdown for News Writing, Editorial Writing, Feature Writing and Copyreading and Headline Writing:
| Contest | Form & Style | Content | Ethics |
|---|---|---|---|
| News Writing | 40% | 50% | 10% |
| Editorial Writing | 40% | 50% | 10% |
| Feature Writing | 30% | 60% | 10% |
Copyreading and Headline Writing splits differently — it’s really two skills scored as one contest: Copyreading 60% (correct use of copyreading symbols, identifying the exact number of planted errors) and Headline Writing 40% (best headline selected, adherence to headline-writing standards). Every contest reserves a fixed 10% for Ethics — originality, correct citation and no plagiarism or libel — a line worth publishing on your own scoresheet even outside the Philippines, since “the writing was good but it wasn’t original” is the one failure mode a Content-only rubric can’t catch.
For the remaining five contests — Sports Writing, Science and Technology Writing, Photojournalism, Editorial Cartooning and Column Writing — DepEd’s memoranda confirm that official scoresheets exist (they’re named as numbered enclosures in the division circular), but a fully readable numeric breakdown for each wasn’t found in any source reliable enough to republish here. Rather than invent a split, treat those five as “ask your division for the current scoresheet” and use the verified three above as your working model until you do — a genuine content, style and ethics split is a safe, defensible starting rubric for any writing contest.
Mobile Journalism’s scoresheet: the newest contest is also the most detailed
Added as an official Secondary-only contest in 2024, Mobile Journalism is the one category where a division memorandum printed its entire scoresheet — 13 rows across three weighted groups:
| Group | Criterion | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile journalism principles — 40% | Shooting | 10 |
| Recording | 10 | |
| Writing | 10 | |
| Editing | 10 | |
| Accuracy — 40% | Fact-checking and sources | 8 |
| Cross-verification | 8 | |
| Contextual understanding | 8 | |
| Transparency | 8 | |
| Editorial standards | 8 | |
| Broadcast quality — 20% | Technical standards | 5 |
| Production values | 5 | |
| Adherence to style guidelines | 5 | |
| Engagement & audience experience | 5 |
The structural insight worth noticing: Accuracy is scored as five separate sub-checks, not one mark. A judge can’t simply feel that a video “seems accurate” — fact-checking, cross-verification, context, transparency and editorial standards each get their own line, which is exactly the kind of criterion breakdown that stops a halo effect (a polished-looking video scoring high on accuracy just because the footage is well shot). It’s the same principle covered in our guide to designing a fair scoring rubric, applied here to a multimedia contest most rubric guides never touch.
Why this is a writing contest, not a performance one
Every other article on this site covers a performance the judge watches live — a song, a dance, a speech. The NSPC’s Individual Contests are the opposite: contestants are given a topic (or a raw video interview, for Mobile Journalism) and write or edit under a timed, closed-room condition, and the judge reads a finished piece afterwards, not a live act. That makes anonymity the real fairness risk, the same problem our essay & story writing judging criteria guide covers for off-stage writing items in general: a judge should never see a contestant’s name or school on the entry, only a chest number or code, decoded only after scoring. For News, Feature, Editorial, Column and Science & Technology Writing, that anonymity rule matters as much as the rubric itself.
Running a schools press conference on eTalenter
A five-level, two-language, two-grade-band writing competition is exactly the shape eTalenter’s setup screens are built to hold once you stop reading every “group” as an age band:
- Age Groups Setup — create Elementary (Grades 1–6) and Secondary (Grades 7–12) as your two groups.
- Event Levels — build the School → District → Division → Regional → National cascade, since results at one level determine who advances to the next rather than every writer re-entering fresh.
- Competition Categories/Items Setup — add the ten contests (News, Feature, Editorial, Sports, Copyreading & Headline, Science & Technology, Column, Photojournalism, Editorial Cartooning, Mobile Journalism).
- Assign Competitions to Groups — assign each item as Individual participation, once per language (English, Filipino), with Mobile Journalism scoped to Secondary only and a max-one-per-school-per-category-per-language entry cap.
- Public Registration Form or Bulk Participant Management — each writer registers under a chest number, so the panel never sees a name or school while scoring.
- Judging & Scoring Setup — enter the verified rubric for the five confirmed contests (Form & Style / Content / Ethics, or Copyreading / Headline), or your division’s own scoresheet for the rest.
- Results Status → Review & Assign Winners — publish per level, so a School-level winner’s entry (and score) carries forward cleanly to District rather than being retyped.
See online competition registration for how a per-language, per-category entry cap is enforced automatically, and judge scoring and tabulation for how scores roll up cleanly through a five-level cascade like School → District → Division → Regional → National.
Frequently asked questions
What is the judging criteria for News Writing in a schools press conference?
DepEd’s own scoresheet splits News Writing into Form and Style (40%), Content (50%) and Ethics (10%). Editorial Writing uses the same 40/50/10 split with different sub-criteria, and Feature Writing shifts to 30/60/10, weighting Content even more heavily.
Why does every contest run in both English and Filipino?
The competition’s own rules treat English and Filipino as two separate contests within each category, not one contest with a language choice — so a school may send one contestant per category per language. Plan your entry caps and judging panels for double the contests, not double the entrants in one contest.
Is Mobile Journalism part of every schools press conference?
It’s an official NSPC Individual Contest since 2024, but for Secondary writers only — there is no Elementary Mobile Journalism category. Confirm your own division’s current-year memorandum before assuming every contest listed here still applies unchanged.
Running a School, District or Division press conference of your own? Open a live competition demo and log in as a demo coordinator or judge (no sign-up), message us on WhatsApp (WhatsApp only — no phone calls), or email support@etalenter.com.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.