Atin Batra, Secretary General, WORDZ says: “WORDZ has mostly been held in cities like Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. We wanted to expose students of Chandigarh and nearby areas to this concept. Thus, we have invited schools from towns like Nabha, Hisar, Ambala to participate in the programme.”

In the programme, students representing different countries discuss globally relevant issues like prevention of outer space arms race, nuclear waste management, strengthening of women and children rights, unrest in Darfur, among others.

“Students from small cities will get a great amount of exposure at WORDZ, which will help refine their public speaking skills. The reason that we have students representing countries rather than themselves, is that, through this, they learn to look at a particular problem from another’s perspective. Though it is difficult to remove personal biases, WORDZ is worth a try,” said Ashmita, Vice-President, WORDZ.

The three-day conference, concluded at a function held at St Stephen’s School today. Dr BC Gupta, Principal Secretary (Home), Punjab, was the chief guest on the occasion.

The three-day conference saw the participation of more than 20 teams, where students discussed issues of global importance. While the best delegation award went to the team from GD Goenka Public School, the students from Delhi Public School, RK Puram, received the maximum number of prizes.

Students unhappy
The programme, has, however, come under criticism by some participants due to the cost factor involved. Each student had to deposit a fee of Rs 1,000 as expenses for their boarding, lodging and food. The students were also required to wear business suits to give a ‘complete’ look to the seminar. A participant said: “They could have held the seminar in school uniforms. It was an unnecessary expenditure of a few thousand and I am not sure if I will wear this ever again.”