DepEd cancels NSPC parade due coronavirus threat

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) announced the cancelation of the traditional parade of this year’s National Schools Press Conference (NSPC) on Monday in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan Province, as it implemented heightened precautions to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease or COVID-19.

The NSPC itself, however, will push through, along with the National Festival of Talents (NFOT), since participants from the country’s 17 regions were already at the venue.

“Heightened precautions are being implemented at NFOT and NSPC, which include foregoing elements of the programs that can be avoided (such as parades, etc.),” DepEd said in a statement released on Sunday.

With this development, officials, campus journalists, and student paper advisers will no longer attend the welcoming rites and will go straight to Cagayan Coliseum for the opening ceremonies on Monday, March 9.

Dubbed as the “Olympics of campus journalism,” the NSPC, the largest gathering of campus journos in the Philippines, will run from March 9 to 13.

Also suspended until further notice are all scheduled national and regional events involving students due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Decisions on other DepEd activities shall await definitive advisory from the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) that we hope to receive tomorrow, to ensure informed, coordinated and proportionate response,” the statement added.

/atm