Chennai: Team India, consisting of five debaters from Indian Schools Debating Society (ISDS), won the Silver Medal at the prestigious World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC) 2018 held in Croatia and Dhananjay Ashok was adjudged as the Best Speaker.
Pradeep Yadav, principal secretary for school Education, presided over the celebratory event held in Chennai and congratulated the winning team. “I request such efforts to percolate into the government school system too,” he said in his speech to the gathering of parents, well-wishers and media.
WSDC was held from July 17 to 27 this year and saw over 600 participants from 64 nations. Team India, consisting of Dhananjay Ashok from The International School, Bangalore, Hemanth Chakravarthy, Sharanya Ravindran and Tejas Subramaniam from Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan and Manya Gupta from Neerja Modi School, Jaipur finished as the second-best nation at the tournament overall, losing to China in the final, where five judges on the panel voted in favour of China, and four in favour of India.
This was India’s best performance by far, beating our own previous best from 2017 in Bali of reaching the quarterfinal. Manya Gupta, in her speech to the audience, said that she was the only one from her school who applied and it felt very odd for her but ISDS has made her comfortable with speaking in front of a crowd. “ISDS meets you where you are. Potential is recognised and that’s why I am here,” she said.
From a nation-wide selection process spanning over six months, 12 cities and 1,000 students, the Indian Schools Debating Society selected the top five speakers from India to represent the country at WSDC.
These results are a first in India’s history of attending WSDC in the last decade, a fitting result for a ten-year anniversary. Topics range anywhere from school vouchers to Chinese foreign policy and teams debate in a unique format crafted to maximize teamwork, analytical reasoning, and dynamic thinking.
Teams are judged by a panel of non-conferring judges who vote for a winner in each debate based on how persuasive and well-reasoned teams’ arguments and refutations are.
Like with any other competitive sport, WSDC comprises of preliminary and knock-out rounds. After eight preliminary rounds that all countries debate in, the best 24 teams advance to the knock-outs, until a champion emerges in the final.
