Debating competition: Schools battle varsities on second day

The fifth round and quarter finals will take place today.

LAHORE: Schoolchildren came up against university students on the second day of the Eighth Annual Shah Jewana Debating Championship on Saturday.

Rounds two, three and four of the English debates and rounds three and four of the Urdu competition were held on Saturday. The fifth round and quarter finals will take place at University College Lahore today. Saturday’s subjects of debate included scholarships, political assets, mistruths of war, Wikileaks and the progress of institutions.

Many younger debaters came up against veteran seniors, but insisted that they relished the experience.

“They are more experienced, they have been debating for years, so obviously it’s very hard for any of us to win against them,” said Asad Ahmad of the Salamat International Campus for Advanced Studies. “No doubt we are learning a lot.”

“It’s a great platform for under-19 teams to be on the same level as universities,” said Lahore Grammar School debating coach Faiza Ahsan. “It gives the debaters the chance to grow.” The school teams competed with universities, but they were scored in comparison with other debaters from the same age group. “The idea is to give them the exposure that the competitors from the universities probably wish they had got when they were in schools,” said senior adjudicator Awais Maqbool Bari. “None of the debating competitions have ever allowed schools to compete at such a level.”

The quarter finals will see schools competing with schools for the trophy and the award for best speaker. But the students competing in the Urdu debates will not get a separate trophy or award for best speaker.

“We have six trophies to give away since we have introduced schools to the competition this year,” said Fatima Bukhari, president of the University College Association of Debaters, which organised the competition.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th,  2011.