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 A. Coetzee.

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.

Most recently we have had two debaters taking part in Nationals, viz. E. Shaik and A. Sewrathan. Both boys are vibrant speakers who never seem to have enough time to say what they want to say. A. Sewrathan has also been selected to represent the Debating Institute of SA in Bratislova in April with several other South African boys and girls.

College is also still a regular team at the UN Debate. We team up with Nsikayethu Secondary from Imbali. The preparation for this debate is onerous and we need to cooperate with our partners regularly. It is a completely different type of debate to the World Schools debating style but is a good learning curve for the boys as they need to adopt the country they are allocated and debate from this country's perspective.
Four 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 Avthar Sewrathan as a leader. The other boys are S. Ndlovu and A. Webley.

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 will be attending a workshop early in March to see what it is all about.

The teachers involved in debating are Mrs van Heeswjik, Ms Swinstead, Ms Winchester and Mrs Couperthwaite. O. Shange, an old boy, is coaching and adjudicating the grade 8 teams.