By Catherine Teves/Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) is targeting to further increase the academe’s knowledge and use of the Filipino language to promote it as the national language of the country.
In Marikina City, KWF conducted this week its first Filipino poetry-writing seminar for teachers and students of public high schools offering the education department’s special program in the arts (SPA).
The lectures during KWF’s May 29-30 Uswag Wika at Tula free seminar covered orthography and conventions of poetry-writing so that the participants, who are from National Capital Region-based schools with SPAs focused on creative writing, can gain additional knowledge and skill in composing poems in Filipino.
“We want to tap their creative writing capability and get them increasingly involved in KWF contests and other activities for promoting Filipino,” said the agency’s senior language researcher Roy Rene Cagalingan.
He said KWF expects schools concerned to publish, in respective papers, the poems that participants wrote based on what they learned during the seminar.
Among the SPA schools that participated in the seminar are Rizal High School, Sta. Elena High School, Mataas na Paaralang Neptali A. Gonzales, Paranaque National High School, Pedro E. Diaz High School, Mariano Marcos Memorial High School and host Marikina Science High School (MSHS) which, Cagalingan said, is one of KWF’s partners in promoting Filipino.
SPA is a nationwide Department of Education program for cultivating students’ skills in music, visual arts, theater arts, media arts, dance, and creative writing.
Cagalingan said KWF still needs logistical support to continue conducting Uswag Wika at Tula seminars for other creative writing-focused SPA schools around the country.
“It’s ideal to hold the seminar in regions nationwide so SPA teachers and students there can also learn about writing poetry in Filipino,” he said.
He said KWF is open to partnering with SPA schools for the conduct of seminars in other regions.
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