Campus scribes trained in S&T reporting

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna – Seventy-seven campus journalists in Luzon and Mindanao have been trained in science and technology (S&T) reporting under a government S&T communication program.

Billed Saka Iskwela: Responsible Campus Journalism Toward Agricultural Productivity, the program is being implemented by the Los Baños-based Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCARRD).

Dr. Patricio Faylon, PCARRD executive director, said Saka Iskwela aims "to harness campus newspapers in the country as channels of S&T news and features to help provide rural people, particularly farmers, with access to agricultural science and technologies which they could use to improve their lives."

"It is PCARRD’s way of involving students in the government’s goal of ensuring agricultural productivity, through their school publications," he said.

To ensure continuing collaboration, the schools and PCARRD signed memoranda of agreement committing themselves to the implementation and success of the program.

Under the program, DOST-PCARRD trains campus writers in S&T news and features writing, as well as desktop publishing, among other things.

In return, the schools will provide a space in their newsletters for S&T news and features, particularly those on technologies generated by the PCARRD-coordinated national agriculture and resources research and development network.