From January 26-27, 2023, best speakers from each section in Grade 10 represented their class through argument and discourse for the English Fortnight 2023 Debate Competition held at the Mini Theatre, which was presented by the SISC English Department.
Each team debated on the given motion depending on which side they were assigned. Most of the chosen motions represent current global and trending issues, such as new technologies, renewable energy usage, societal injustices, and more. The British Parliamentary was used for this debate and each team was assigned to either the government or the opposition’s side. Each team was given a certain amount of time for research. and then went up against each other to discuss, debate, and defend their assigned motions.
Each team went through an elimination process through a formal debate within each class. Through these class debates each student was chosen to represent their section for the Fortnight Debate Competition.
On the day of the competition, each team was summoned to the mini theater. opening remarks from Leigh Sindac. As introductions finished, each team sat down and began to discuss and debate about their topics.
The first round started with Responsibility against Leadership wherein their motion was “The use of Social Media should be regulated” with Responsibility being the government and Leadership being the opposition. The opposition side won the debate making Leadership the winner of the first round.
Meanwhile, Commitment as the Government side and Conviction as the opposition side were having their debate on the motion: the SOGIE bill should be celebrated. Commitment had emerged victorious for this round.
After the loss of Conviction, they were given a chance to debate against Prudence where their motion was “This house would implement the elimination of the use of gas-powered vehicles by 2030”. Prudence was on the government side while Conviction was on the opposition side. The opposition side won this round making Conviction the winner of this debate.
In the semi-finals round, the two winners Leadership and Commitment battled against each other with their motion being “This house believes that (TBHT) libraries should be digitized”. Once again Leadership won, making them have a two-time winning streak.
Meanwhile, Prudence and Responsibility regained the chance to rise up from their loss and were put up against each other to debate about their motion which was “THBT Press freedom is a myth.” This gave a winning chance for Prudence to advance to the next round.
After a series of elimination, Commitment and Leadership had made it onto the Championship rounds. The two teams battled against each other in the Championship round with their motion being “The internet does more harm than good to the arts.” Leadership was declared the winner of the competition.
Don Enrique Padilla, one of the winners from Leadership said, “The debate was an emotional rollercoaster in the best way possible… Overall the elimination rounds were intense, nerve-wracking, but immense fun all rolled into one.”
“It was really interesting hearing different perspectives and ideas about all the topics… All in all, I felt okay, even though there were some problems that arose from it… it is a debate though, sometimes it brings the worst out of people,” said Padilla's teammate, Boris Principe, on his experience.
Ryza Boco from 10-Commitment praised the competition, saying that she “never thought I could feel as many emotions during a 2-day event… I'm very happy that our English teachers never failed to continuously guide us all the way and I'll forever keep that in my heart. Although most of the participants agreed that this event was a bit stressful to them, they all had fun and were proud to represent their class for the Debate Competition."
The participants indeed felt a mix of emotions throughout this event as hearing different sides and perspectives was an interesting experience for them. The competition had surely left an impact on not only the debaters, but the teachers, facilitators, and audience as well.
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