By Anthony A. Araos
In totality, each contest of the 2026 Ifugao Division Schools Press Conference makes news stories. Easily, each step of this development makes newsworthy accounts.
There were Big Stories. There were small stories. There were a lot of stories in between.
And as in the case of competition at the Lagawe Central School, the classrooms are the scenes of many colorful events including mental calisthenics on news writing, sports writing and column writing, who in themselves worthy of news mention. It surely generated a lot of interest.
Winners emerged in various contests for elementary and high school students. A number of public and private schools across the province took part.
Congratulations to Imelda Licyag for a job well done for the three-day activity. She is the education program supervisor (English) of the division office. Her influence on policy development and her compassionate, effective approach to management and supervision have cemented her role as a time champion of advancing the cause of campus journalism in this part of the country.
I’m so glad that five of my students during the journalism workshops I conducted in 2025 at Pinto National High School and Namillangan High School, both in Alfonso Lista, ruled their events and are now bound to compete in Bangued Abra, for the regional level. My heartfelt congratulations to them as well as to their coaches, school heads and parents! Also, I got an offer to conduct a journalism workshop at Sta. Maria National High School in Alfonso Lista. I really accepted it. Most honored to be the lecturer of this workshop at Ifugao’s largest public high school.
Draw closer to the people, most especially the poor learners of these government-run schools I opted to conduct these innovative and in school competition and engaging journalism workshops. As I see the relation of economic deprivation to improvement of the quality of education at the countryside, vis-à-vis the performance of these young scribes. All told, I considered the task of improving the well-being of my students as very important. If not social inequality is bound to grow in a poverty-stricken province like Ifugao.
However laudable the motivation for the opportunity given to primary and secondary students to take part in this contest, I’m raising my concerns on exacting “registration” fees- of different amounts on public school competitions. Their parents are farmers and fisher folks. We wanted to create a fair level of playing field in this all-important competition, so we can truly address the ever-widening gap between the rich and poor. Scrap this detestable practice and I call upon the national government to provide “subsidy” on this matter. What I have in mind is elevating this concern to Education Secretary Sonny Angara and Senators Loren Legarda and Bam Aquino. An “educator” doesn’t care about pissing off poor but promising campus writers to pay for the water and electricity used during the activity is terrible. A continuance of this practice will run into a minefield in a Senate inquiry when the education department operates on public funds and billions of pesos stolen and squandered by those involved in the “flood control” scandal.
I’m also commending Schools Division Superintendent Virginia Amogan-Batan for her invaluable contributions to this endeavor. Her hard work, dedication to duty and strong leadership helped her gain rapport with countless stakeholders in Ifugao. Inspiring and motivating teachers to love their profession above life is her admirable trait. I’m hopeful they would for their learners’ sake.
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