The Frank Anthony Memorial – All India Inter School Debate Competition, conducted by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (I.C.S.E), New Delhi, Category 1, stage 1, for classes 11 and 12, was held on 17th July 2017, at the Maganlaal Chaganlaal Kejriwal Vidyapeeth (M.C.K.V) school. A total of twelve schools had taken part in the competition. Each team consisted of two members (for and against). The two students who took part in the competition from our school were, Ankita Saha (for the motion) and Yukti Verma (against the motion). The topic was given one hour prior to the participants and they were allowed access to the MCKV School library. The topic was “The Print Media is losing out”. The participants were asked to speak for 4 minutes (3+1) and were given 2 minutes for the rebuttal. The order of the debate was decided by a lottery system.
All the participants put their arguments, both in favour of and against the motion very convincingly but the highlights of the competition were the rebuttal rounds. The participants spoke vehemently and cited logical reasons with supportive examples. Confidence radiated from the participants’ body language and demeanour and it was a very close competition. The school which won the Best Team Award was Don Bosco, Bandel and the runner up team award was Frank Anthony Public School. The Best Speaker was a participant from Don Bosco, Bandel and the runner up speaker was Frank Anthony Public School.
The debate competition for Category 2, stage 1, for classes 9 and 10, was held on the same day at the Calcutta Public School, Baguihati. There were twelve schools who participated, each school team consisting of two members. Meghan Ann D’Souza and Ananya Shri Tiwari were the two students from our school. The topic, “E-book is here to stay”, was given to them one hour prior and they were allowed to use the Calcutta Public School Library. The participants were asked to speak for 4 minutes (3+1) and one minute was given for rebuttal. The order of the debate was decided by a lottery system.
The respective judges for the competition were John Abraham, Principal of Heritage College, Mrs. D’Souza, Salt Lake (C.A) and Dr. Ashish De. St. James School secured the Best Team position and the Runner Up Team was from our school W.G.S, B.B.Ganguly Street. A participant from St. James secured the Best Speaker position and Meghan Ann D’Souza, representing our school, secured the Runner Up position. We wish them the best for the next stage.
The energy and adrenaline of the debate brought out more confidence in us and it enthused a new vision towards education. There was a great deal to learn from this debate. We would like to thank our teachers, Mrs. A. Basu, Mrs. B. Mukherjee and Mrs. Kumar for escorting and encouraging us. We would also like to express our gratitude for our Principal, Dr. Hart and Head Mistress, Mrs. Jackson for encouraging us and giving us such a golden opportunity and our Rector, Mr. Calvert for training, helping and believing in us. We learnt a lot from this experience and hope to get more such opportunities.
REPORTED BY: YUKTI VERMA
