Debating

PERSON IN CHARGE: Mrs L Couperthwaite

2012 brought with it many new keen debaters. We are still taking part in the Pietermaritzburg Debating League with 2 Grade 8 teams, 2 Junior teams and 3 Senior teams. The captain is Y Shaikh.

The league debating involves a great deal of work. The Grade 8 teams are allocated a topic and also which side they are debating on. The Juniors are given a topic and have no idea if they are Proposition or Opposition. The Seniors are just given a topic area. An example of some of the topics for Seniors is: "This house believes that HIV positive persons should disclose their status to their marriage partner before marriage." This is not an easy topic to debate but interestingly enough more opposition teams won than proposition.

One Grade 8 debater has turned out to be a shining star and despite his junior status he has selected as a reserve for the KZN team. Unfortunately there are no travelling reserves so he has to miss out this year, but R Hodgson will definitely be there next year.

Three boys have also been involved in the annual IPPF (International Public Policy Forum) debate. This is a different ball game altogether as it is a written debate and also an international debate. The participants initially choose whether they will oppose or propose a given topic. This debate then gets judged and 32 teams are then allocated and given the proposition or opposition side. This process continues till there are only 8 teams left. These 8 teams then do a public debate in New York.

The College team is still very young with S. Ndlovu , A. Webley and N Mthembu.

This year we have entered a Science debating competition as well. This is initiated by SAASTA , which is a Science teacher's organisation. Five boys had to write an essay under five topics: economic, political, development in Science and Scio-Cultural. The actual topic was bout the demise of Penicillin as a useful antibiotic drug. The selection will be made on the strength of these essays. This will then culminate in an oral debate against 10 other schools from KZN.

The teachers involved in debating are Mrs van Heeswjik, Ms Swinstead, Ms Winchester and Mrs Couperthwaite.