Kolkata School conquers all

Updated on: Saturday, November 26, 2011

Our Lady Queen of the Missions, Kolkata beat Christ Junior College, Bangalore to become National Champions of Debating Matters India 2011.

Eight schools from across India competed for the Debating Matters India championship, where students debated on contemporary issues that are affecting the world.

The final debate argued the motion ‘India should strive for soft power not super power’ which took place recently at the British Council, Delhi in the presence of a large audience who actively participated in the debate by commenting and posing difficult questions.

Our Lady Queen of the Missions received the trophy from Sandeep Dikshit, politician son of Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit. Payaswini Tailor from the winning all-girls team was thrilled and said, "We were all there to make ourselves heard to the right people. Never did we know that the impact would lead us to victory. It has been an experience of another hundred lifetimes". The winning team comprised Payaswini Tailor, Harshita Kaul, Tania Chattopadhyay and Arushi Dhupia.

Sujata Sen, director, British Council East India said, “Debating Matters gives students in India a chance to debate real world issues. The insight that students provide and the chance they get to interact and engage with peers and opinion makers is an invaluable experience. We are delighted that each year more schools sign up to be a part of this programme. We are also happy to have partners who share our belief that young people should be empowered to debate contemporary issues that affect them.”

The winning team will have a chance to visit the UK in an all-expenses paid trip to debate with the Debating Matters UK Champions at the Battle of Ideas Festival in October 2012.

Out of nearly 450 schools from various parts of India who took part in an Online Elimination Test, 96 schools qualified for the live debate at the regional finals of the third edition of Debating Matters India. Winners of the regional rounds took part in the national finals. 

More Education news

• Entrance exams to be time-bound
• IAF to select crew for India's 1st manned mission to space
• Kids dont give words special power to mark their worlds
• Faculty shortage in IITs
• Indian-origin scientist Ramakrishnan honoured with knighthood
• Education for special children has a long way to go, finds survey
• Admission process: Engineering aspirants get boost
• Controversy, scams bent the learning curve
• Good science is not possible without freedom of thought: Ramakrishnan
• Panels to monitor SSA
• DU may allow Pak student with poor attendance to take exam
• Direction to issue appointment letters within 6 weeks
• Indians in Malaysia urged to safeguard Tamil language
• JK govt to suspend principals of zero pass rate schools
• Decks clear for AMU Centre in Bihar
• MP medical admission scam: Guilty students to face action
• TN to recruit 7,000 teachers for govt schools-
• State common board to examine Samacheer kalvi syllabus
• Rs 151 crore sanctioned for DD Upadhyay College building
• Balaji Telefilms to sell education, mobile content biz for Rs 8.37 cr