Will nationalisation of the education system revive the quality of the lessons imparted to students?’ and ‘Is fasting an effective way to tackle social problems?’ were the questions that sealed the deal for the students of DAV Girls Senior Secondary School, Gopalapuram, who proved their debating skills with elan at ‘Battle-On’, an inter-school debate competition organised by Lady Andal Venkatasubba Rao Matriculation Higher Secondary School, that began on Monday. Twenty four city schools participated in the two-day event.
The nail-biting final that was a culmination of five gruelling pre-final rounds, had DAV Girls pitted against PSBB, Nungambakkam. But the winning team, comprising Eshitha Singh and Sruthi R Pillai, managed to score with their passionate stance against the implementation of a uniform school syllabus in their closing argument.
According to Sruthi, “The event was great fun and a big learning experience for us. I feel we won because we could strategise well and did some homework.”
For V Amrithavarshini, a student of PSBB, Nungambakkam, the entire debate was a unique experience. “I think the most exciting part was that we didn’t know which side we had to take even five minutes before the debate started,” she exclaims.
The face-off debates between the two final teams included topics such as the merits of nuclear submarines over conventional submarines and the boon of a national water grid system. The students came up with thoughful points for the topic ‘the freedom to exercise the option of 49(0) in elections’.
The awards for ‘Best Question’ and ‘Best Speaker’ was bagged by J P Jagan Prabhu of SBOA School & Junior College, Anna Nagar.