Awareness and Compliance with Campus Journalism of the Public and Private Elementary Schools: Basis for Crafting a Campus Journalism Implementation Teachers’ Training Model Ariel U. Cubillas * & Trixie E. Cubillas * * Caraga State University ** Caraga State University DOI: 10.29322/IJSRP.X.X.2018.pXXXX Abstract: Campus journalism has long been implemented in the Philippines via the Campus Journalism Act of 1991 or R.A. 7079. The act prescribed the implementation of campus journalism in both public and private schools. The researchers took interest in determining the level of awareness and compliance of these schools in the implementation of campus journalism. The study utilized the descriptive-correlational design. There was a total of 208 respondents who were from the public and private elementary schools which regularly participate in press conferences. A researcher-made questionnaire based on the provisions of R.A. 7079 was utilized in the study. Based on the data gathered, it was found out that the level of awareness and compliance were directly related that is if the former is low, the latter will also be low and vice versa. The findings further revealed the problems encountered by the schools which pertain to the infrastructural, structural, and financial aspects of campus journalism. To address these problems, some private and public elementary schools have made some initiatives which were considered effective and productive. These initiatives were significant items considered in the crafting of a Campus Journalism Implementation Teachers’ Training Model. Index Terms: Awareness, Campus Journalism, Campus Journalism Act, Campus Journalism Implementation Teachers’ Training Model, and Compliance I. INTRODUCTION Campus journalism is a training ground for students who wish to pursue journalism as a career. The campus or school paper is vital not just because it exposes budding journalists to what goes on in the newsroom but also through it, students were honed to have good interpersonal skills (Hayes, 1994). Udlap (2008) explained that the staffers of the campus paper viewed that school paper’s real essence is to be “watchdog” of whatever issues in the campus. Mencher (2006 in Udlap, 2008) explained that one of the functions of school paper is to reveal the nature of the community it serves. While the student-leaders and parents believe that school paper must reflect what they perceived as values of society and education, the school administrators however, would want the paper to speak well of the administrations’ good intentions. In the Philippines, the role of campus journalism was made clear when the Republic Act 7079 otherwise known as the Campus Journalism Act of 1991 was enacted. Explicitly written in section 2 of the act is the primary role of campus journalism that is to promote the development and growth of campus journalism as a means of strengthening ethical values, encouraging critical and creative thinking, and developing moral character and personal discipline of the Filipino youth. R.A. 7079 also paved the way of campus journalism to be a requirement in all public elementary and secondary schools in the country especially those that collect journalism fees (Philippine Information Agency, 2016). Pursuant to the act, the Department of Education or DepEd is mandated to sponsor periodic competitions, press conferences and training seminars in which writers and teacher-advisers of student publication in elementary and secondary will participate (Regional Memo 174 s. 2014). Currently, campus journalism becomes a challenge to school paper advisers and pupil-journalists because of the limited resources of schools to finance the student publication. Because of the dearth of funds, pupil-journalists and even their advisers struggle to financially support their participation to activities such as trainings, workshops, seminars, and fora (Cervantes, 2017). In addition to the issues on campus journalism funds, the lack of awareness to CJA also brought out problems, such as the teaching overload of the school paper advisers, the going beyond technical guidance of the advisers in terms of the content of the school paper, and the lack of moral support of the schools to campus journalism programs and activities were among the many concerns authentically experienced today by the public and private elementary schools.