The Hindu : New Delhi News : Unique school debate competition

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Tuesday, Jul 14, 2009
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New Delhi

Unique school debate competition

Madhur Tankha

NEW DELHI: British Council has announced the second year of its unique national schools’ debate programme titled “Debating Matters India”.

The Council has invited schools to participate in the online elimination test for an electrifying national debating competition for high school students on issues concerning their everyday lives. The last date of entry for the online elimination test is August 31.

Billed as a successful schools’ debate competition in the United Kingdom, the debate programme is less formal than the traditional debating competitions. It is highly rigorous and students have to do an in-depth research on relevant topics to make convincing arguments. The new format that has been introduced in the country gives students an insight into the world of ideas. The debate got an overwhelming response in the country as a pilot year programme last year.

While in traditional debates, teachers write down the speeches and train their students with a stopwatch, in this debating competition students have to think for themselves and speak extempore so they must understand the topic fully.

According to Ranjana Bhattacharya, a teacher at St. Xaviers Collegiate School, Kolkata, this debate was an excellent format that focused on substance and depth rather than superficial gloss and style. “The students are passionately engaged and extremely well-prepared.”

“Debating Matters India” is open to students of Class XI and Class XII. Each school is allowed to register only one team but are encouraged to register a six-member debate team along with a debate coordinator teacher right from the online elimination stage.

Online Elimination Test is the first stage of the competition that requires the school debate team to register online. After registering online, the team will download a topic guide from which they prepare for the OET. Upon the completion of the test, the team will have to submit their answer online which will be examined by British Council examiners.

The teams will be selected on the basis of the answers they given at the OET. At the end of this process, the 12 short listed schools from each region will get a seeding based on their performance in the OET. The schools have to log on to www.britishcouncil.org.in/debatingmattersindia for the registration process.

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