On 18 April 2015, SEMESRA sent out two junior debate teams to represent the school in the Garden International School English Debate Competition. The competition was open to students of 14 years old and below and the theme for this year is Liberalism.
All teams had to go for 4 compulsory rounds and these are the topics:
Round
1: This house believes that censorship of the media does more harm than good.
Round
2: This house would allow governments to invade personal privacy (ie tapping
phones, hacking computers, spying on its citizens) in the interest of national
security.
Round
3: This house supports unfettered freedom of speech.Round 4: This house believes that violent protest is a warranted mechanism for social change for countries with undemocratic leaders.
Out of 4 rounds, the girls won 1 round while the boys won 2 rounds. One of the boys Naufal was awarded with Most Improved Speaker medal.
Although it was their first time debating and going out for competitions, the students were able to hold their own. Hopefully with enough training and exposure, the debaters would be able to do better in other competitions.