Team Choksey exhibit debating prowess in London
S M Choksey High School and Junior College has won the exhibition debate against this years UK Debating Matters champion Durham Johnston Comprehensive School in London on Sunday.
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S M Choksey High School and Junior College has won the exhibition debate against this years UK Debating Matters champion Durham Johnston Comprehensive School in London on Sunday. The Indian team argued for the motion Protecting the public from terrorism should come before civil liberties.
Choksey High School and Junior College is the current India champions of Debating Matters. Debating Matters is a schools debate competition in the UK,pioneered by the Institute of Ideas,UK,and supported by Welcome Trust and Pfizer. It is less formal than the traditional debating competitions while being highly rigorous, with a strong emphasis on students researching their arguments well. Debating Matters is open to students of Class XI and XII of Indian schools.
The Choksey team that consisted of students — Shivanand Ambalavanan,Auzita Irani,Vignesh Gundesha and Mrinalini Shinde and the school principal Neeta Lodhi travelled to London earlier to witness the Debating Matters UK finals,held at the prestigious Royal Society of Medicine,London from 3-5 July 2009. Following a lively exhibition debate,the first between a UK champion school and another international winner of Debating Matters,Team Choksey were declared winners.
At the final debate,the Pune students faced tough questioning on their uncompromising stance from a panel of judges,including A C Grayling,professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College,Kenan Malik,writer,lecturer and broadcaster and Anita Anand,presenter of BBC2s The Daily Politics. The judges praised the team for their detailed research,fine grasp of the subject and their charming and eloquent presentation.
Shivanand Ambalavanan of Choksey School also won the prestigious Gima Owen Memorial Award,an audience prize for the sharpest,wittiest contribution delivered with warmth and humour.
This has been an extremely enriching experience. The expert seminars we attended were wonderful and we learnt a lot from the poise with which our opponents handled the judges questions, said team member Vignesh Gundesha,17,even as his teammate Auzita Irani,17,added,This international exchange of ideas has been exhilarating.
Debating Matters is one of the rare debate competitions where young people are encouraged to engage deeply with real issues that affect them. I am delighted that SM Choksey School from Pune,India,won against their counterparts in the UK,debating a topic that concerns young people all over the world today and yet has its own peculiar resonance in almost every nation affected by terror, said Rod Pryde,regional director,British Council India and Sri Lanka.
Tony Gilland,Science and Society director of the Institute of Ideas and international coordinator of the competition said bringing countries together to debate issues of importance to all nations not only benefited the students involved but was extremely thought-provoking for the judges too. Throughout the finals,the Indian students taught the English students that similar debates have a different context in different countries, he said.
Debating Matters was launched in India last year and reaches out to young audiences across the nation.
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