KUCHING – Forty teams from 13 secondary schools will face off at Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus’ fifth annual World Schools Debating Championship from 26 to 29 April.
“This year we have the largest number of teams taking part in the championship, but not only that, we’ve noticed that as each year passes, the quality of debating improves. Students from all schools are really growing with our Championship,” said Christina Yin advisor of Swinburne Sarawak’s Debaters Club which organises the annual championship.
The championship, said Yin, is to encourage students of secondary schools to debate in English and to hone their oral and communication skills as well as their reasoning and critical thinking skills.
“We’ve noticed that from the past few championships, there has been tremendous improvement among participants. In fact, the arguments they put forth are of such high quality that this year, instead of releasing the motions to the schools in advance, we are only releasing themes upon which the motions will be based,” she said.
Although the students will know the themes some three weeks before the Championship, the World Schools Debating style is organised in such a way that motions are given to debaters only 30 minutes before they are pitted against one another. Debaters therefore need to have good general knowledge, form opinions and make their arguments in a very short period of time.
Adjudicators, or judges, comprise mainly Swinburne Sarawak lecturers as well as senior members of the Debaters Club, participating school teachers and some independent individuals with debating backgrounds. This year, the chief adjudicator is Dr Sucharit Pongprakyun, an experienced debater and adjudicator from Universiti Putra Malaysia, who was also chief adjudicator last year.
The deputy chief adjudicators are Alexander Tho, the founding President of the Swinburne Sarawak Debaters Club, Christina Yin, club advisor and Associate Head of the School of Language and Foundation, Irzal Kamal bin Helme, an experienced debater and adjudicator from the International Islamic University, and Kevin Tan, the club’s debate trainer and organiser.
The teams, all from schools in the Kuching area, will be divided into Senior (Forms 4 to 6) and Junior (Forms 1 to 3) categories.
Last year, SMK DPHA Gapor Stampin took the championship title for the Senior category while SMK St Teresa was the champion for the Junior category.
SMK St Joseph and Lodge School took Runners-Up place in the respective categories.
Apart from the championship title, also up for grabs are awards for the top five Best Debaters in each category, Best Speaker of English, Most Promising Team, Best Debater in each Final and Champions in each category.
Sponsors for the debating championship include 360 Hotel Kuching, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Badrya Cafe and Catering, Classic Music Conservatory, the English Language Centre, LL Banana Leaf, and Mickey Cake House.