A party-list lawmaker urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to classify campus journalism subjects and activities in the K-12 curriculum under the Araling Panlipunan discipline, instead of the Languages.
1-Ang Edukasyon Rep. Salvador Belaro Jr. said the reorientation of campus journalism as a social studies discipline will deepen the youths’ understanding of the context and larger role journalism plays in society.
“The reorientation of campus journalism as a social studies discipline will deepen our youths’ understanding of the context and larger role journalism has in society.”
“Campus journalism as part of Araling Panlipunan or MAKABAYAN subjects will make our young journalists even more aware of the fact that their campuses are not isolated or separated from their communities and local government units, but are integral parts thereof,” stressed Belaro.
The legislator suggested that DepEd assign the role of school paper adviser to Araling Panlipunan teachers.
“Our English and Filipino teachers can focus on the important mission of giving our kids the conceptual and communication competencies they need for lifelong learning,” the lawmaker said.
“With campus journalism as an Araling Panlipunan matter, DepEd would be right to assign the task school paper adviser to the social studies teachers, whose co-curricular advising is currently limited to the student councils on campus,” he noted.
“With campus journalism as an Araling Panlipunan matter, DepEd would be right to assign the task school paper adviser to the social studies teachers.”
“Campus journalism is community journalism,” he added. “With the MAKABAYAN orientation, the school papers can include in articles about their schools’ surrounding barangays, their city or town and their province. School papers would no longer be limited to campus news.”
Belaro was a campus journalist himself. He served as editorial board member of the Philippine Collegian during his time in the University of the Philippines College of Law.
When he was taking up B.A. Political Science in UP Diliman, he served as editor-in-chief of Tanglaw and associate editor of Sinag.
In 1984, he was awarded as one of the National Winners of the National Secondary Schools Press Conference (Feature Writing Category) representing Partido State University in Camarines Sur where he also served as the editor-in-chief of the school paper, The Partido Clarion.
