A literary and debating competition has launched across 13 secondary schools in the country. Inspired and led by Trudy Christian, the competition will hold at the Dominica State College (DSC) and it will run from January-April 2023. The overall team will enjoy an all-expense trip for four to St. Lucia.
A counsellor for the Literary and Debating Society at DSC, Christian set up various teams to oversee the progress and success of the secondary school competition. Some of the committees include a topic selection committee, a logistics committee, promotions committee, and debate officials. Members of the committees were trained by Dr. Kimone Joseph.
According to Christian, the major objectives of the debate competition is to instill public speaking skills in young adults, and to re-introduce the culture of organized debating among youths in Dominica. The competition will be in four stages, and each school dipped into a bag to select their debate topics and the schools they will be competing against.
“The winners of each round move forward to the next round until in the last round, to be held in April, there will only be two schools left standing,” Christian explained. “In the first round, to be held in the second week of January 2023, the Convent High School will challenge the Portsmouth Secondary School; the Community High School goes up against the Isaiah Thomas Secondary School; the St. Martin Secondary School faces the Castle Bruce Secondary School; the Arthur Waldron SDA squares off against the St. Mary’s Academy; the Goodwill Secondary School challenges the Orion Academy; the Dominica Grammar School debates the North East Comprehensive Secondary School.”
The organizer stated that New India Assurance and AC Shillingford (Promex Milk) among other sponsors within the private sector have reached out to support the debate initiative. She revealed that DOWASCO, the National Cooperative Credit Union, UWI Open Campus, Flow Dominica, the Ministry of Education, and the National Bank of Dominica have also pledged some support.
Secondary school debate competition was formerly organized by Kiwanis Club of Roseau many years ago; but Christian under the aegis of the Literary and Debating Society at DSC is resuscitating the initiative further again.
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