National Team for World Schools Debating Championship 2012

The team to represent Sri Lanka at the World Schools Debating Championship 2012, to be held in Cape Town, South Africa next year, was selected over the course of the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd of October 2011. Selections were conducted by the Debaters' Council of Sri Lanka, and the team to participate at WSDC 2012 is as follows:

Maleen Jayasuriya - Wesley College

Meghal Perera - Ladies' College

Sanjit Dias - S. Thomas' College

Tamara Fernando - Colombo International School

Maya Wijeyeratne - Ladies' College

We congratulate the team members on their selection and wish them the best of luck as they represent the country at the Championship.

Lilian Nixon Challenge Shield 2011

The Debate Competition for the Lilian Nixon Challenge Shield 2011, organized by Ladies' College, was held on the 22nd and 23rd of October, with the participation of around 18 teams. At the end of the three preliminary debates worked off on the 22nd, the eight teams that broke into the knock out rounds were (in descending order) ,

1) Wesley College (A)

2) Colombo International School (A)

3) S. Thomas' College

4) Royal College (A)

5) Ananda College (A)

6) Trinity College

7) Royal College (B)

8) Anula Vidyalaya

The two teams which ultimately made their way to the final were Wesley College and S. Thomas' College. The motion for the final was "This house would conduct pharmaceutical trials on death row convicts".

Wesley College, who proposed the motion, was represented by,

Maleen Jayasuriya (C)

Sithira Gunasekera

Chrisjith Xavier

while S. Thomas' College comprised,

Sanjit Dias (C)

Sidath Gajanayaka

Shamlin Abdul Cader

At the end of it all, the five-member judging panel voted unanimously in favour of Wesley College, making them the champions of the competition and the winners of the Challenge Shield. The panel of adjudicators comprised Deshan Pushparajah, Shamalie Jayatunge, Vishaka Wijenayake, Shan Dantanarayana and Sandaruwani de Silva.

Sanjit Dias of S. Thomas' College was adjudged the Most Outstanding Speaker of the competition.

This competition also incorporated a Novice Final for new and inexperienced debaters, for the very first time, and the two teams which competed in it were Methodist College and Ananda College (B). The Novice Final was ultimately won by Ananda College.

WSDC 2012 Selections- Rescheduled

Selections for the National Team for WSDC 2012 have been postponed, and will not be held on the 15th and 16th of October. Selections will take place on the following weekend (22nd and 23rd October 2011). Those who are interested in participating at the selection debates are requested to send in their CVs to the following address:

debaterscouncil@gmail.com

Any further developments will be made known on the blog.

Selections for WSDC 2012

The World Schools Debating Championships 2012 will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, from the 17th to the 27th of January 2012.

The selections for Team Sri Lanka will be held on the 15th and 16th of October 2011. Applications to participate at the selection debates will be accepted until the 11th of October 2011. If you are interested in participating at the selection debates, please submit a CV outlining your debating achievements along with your Date of Birth and contact details before the above date to the following address:

debaterscouncil@gmail.com

Successful candidates will be notified of their eligibility to attend the selection debates by the 13th of October 2011.

Selections by the panel are subject to approval by the Ministry of Education of Sri Lanka.

Team Sri Lanka at WSDC 2011

The World Schools Debating Championships 2011 were held in Dundee, Scotland, from the 16th to the 26th of August. This year marked Sri Lanka's 6th year participating officially at the Championships.

Selections for the team began in late January, and after a series of eight workshops and competitive debates, the following were selected to represent the country this year:

Sanjit Dias (Captain) - S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia
Tamara Fernando - Colombo International School
Manisha Dissanayake - Ladies' College
Raaliya Hussain - Methodist College
Lithmal Jayawardhana - Ananda College

The team was coached by Kithmina Hewage, a former member of the national team, and at present, an under-graduate at Johns Hopkins University.

The team did well to secure four wins out of the eight preliminary debates. The team overcame Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Peru, but were defeated by South Korea, USA, India and New Zealend, with the latter two being very close debates. Unfortunately, the team did not break into the knock-out rounds this year, but were ranked 23rd based on wins and losses, and 19th based on speaker points, out of the 48 teams which participated at the Championships.

The Championships were won by Singapore-the first ever Asian team to achieve this feat-who beat Australia 7-2 in the Grand Final, opposing the motion "This house believes that autocracy is doomed in the age of Facebook".

Special commendation goes out to Sanjit Dias, Tamara Fernando and Manisha Dissanayake, who were ranked 9th, 11th, and 14th respectively on the "English as a Second Language"(ESL) speaker tab.

Musaeus College Impromptu Debating Competition 2011

The above tournament, organized by the Debating Circle of Musaeus College, was held on the 11th and 14th of June, with the Grand Final being held on the latter date.

The inter-school competition saw 14 of the top teams in Colombo participate, and the two finalists who emerged from the debates on the 11th, were St. Joseph's College and Holy Family Convent, Colombo 04.

The motion for the Grand Final was "This house believes that the source of crime is social deprivation"

The team from St. Joseph's College, who proposed the motion, comprised,

Keith James (C)
Daniel Ferdinandus
Shehara Herath
Sherveen Fernando (R)

while Holy Family Convent was represented by

Rosheni Ratnayake (C)
Shenelle Perera
Mihiri Weerasekara

The three-member judging panel for the final comprised Shamir Zavahir, Oshan Fernando and Viraga Perera.

After a closely contested debate, the judges' decision was split; 2-1 in favour of St. Joseph's College.

Manisha Dissanayake of Ladies' College was adjudged the best speaker of the competition.

6th Sri Lanka Schools Debating Championship- 2011

The above tournament, organized by the Moot Court and Debating Society(MCDS) of the faculty of law, University of Colombo, was held on two seperate weekends in the month of February. The six preliminary rounds were worked off on the 19th and 20th, while the knock-out rounds and the Grand Final were held on the 27th.

This year's tournament saw close to 60 teams participating, with a high level of debate displayed at all encounters.

The Grand Final was between S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia, and St. Joseph's College, with the former proposing the motion, "This house believes that judicial activism is unjust in a democracy"

The team from S. Thomas' College comprised,

Minaal Wickremesinghe (C)
Si-Hua Chang
Sanjit Dias

while the team from St. Joseph's College was represented by

Jeevith Sukumaran
Kevin De Silva (C)
Keith James

The debate was judged by a panel of nine adjudicators, all of whom have had a wealth of experience debating at school and university level.

The 9-person panel comprised Nishantha De Silva (chair), Gehan Goonatilleka, Shan Dantanarayana, Rehan Almeida, Deshan Pushparajah, Charana Kanankenamage, Shamalie Jayatunge, Luwie Ganeshathas, and Galusha Wirithamulla.

The decision went unanimously in favour of S. Thomas' College, who emerged the undefeated champions, having previously won all six preliminary debates-the only team to achieve this feat.

Minaal Wickremesinghe, the captain of the victorious side, was adjudged the best speaker of the championship.

CIS Crowned Best of the Best

The Grand Final of the Debaters' Council Schools League 2010 was held on the 29th of January at the Colombo International School Auditorium.

The Final, between Colombo International School and S. Thomas' College turned out to be a hotly contested affair. The motion for the final was "This House Would Ban Wikileaks." CIS proposed the motion while S. Thomas' College opposed

The adjudicators considering both sides, decided on a close 6-3 split in favor of Cololmbo International School. Hence CIS became the CHAMPIONS of the League.

The 9 member adjudication panel at the grand final consisted of Mr. Rehan Almeida, Mr. Nishantha De Silva, Mr. Gehan Gunatilleke, Mr. Deshan Pushparajah, Ms Shamalie Jayatunge, Mr. Charana Kanankegamage, Ms Vishakha Wijenayake, Mr. Shaan Dantanarayana and Ms Raneesha De Alwis.

Commenting on the finals, Chief Adjudicator Mr. Rehan Almeida highlighted that the debate itself was not of the highest quality but commended both teams on producing some spectacular performances over the previous year.

The two finalist teams were represented by

Colombo International School
Tamara Fernando (Captain)
Manjaree Gamage
Menakshi Uduwela

S. Thomas' College
Vinura Ladduwahetty (Captain)
Minaal Wickremasinghe
Sanjit Dias

The following were the top speakers at the League (In Descending order)

Sanjit Dias, S. Thomas' College College - Most outstanding speaker
Maleen Jayasuriya, Wesley College
Meghal Perera, Ladies' College
Minaal Wickremasinghe, S. Thomas' College
Chrisjit Xavier, Wesley College

The event, being the climax of the now flagship schools tournament of the Debaters' Council saw the presence of teachers & well wishers from all over the country.

8 long months and 57 debates from the start of this year's tournament. Colombo International School, the champion of champions at school level debating.

Based on the final rankings, Colombo International School. S. Thomas' College, Wesley College and Ladies' College will gain automatic qualification for The DC Schools League 2011, while the remaining schools will be relegated to qualify again at the Sri Lanka Schools Debating Championship 2011 to be held in February this year.

The Debaters' Council congratulates both finalists and all other participating teams for the high standard of debating displayed right throughout.

Debaters' Council Schools League 2010 - The promise of a thriller

The much awaited grand final of the 2nd annual DC Schools' League will be worked off on the 29th of January (Saturday) at the Colombo International School Auditorium. The final is to commence at 3.45 p.m

After 56 grueling debates amongst the top 8 teams in the country, Colombo International School and S. Thomas' College will battle it out in the Grand Final. The motion for the debate will be "THW Ban Wikileaks." CIS will propose the motion while S. Thomas' College will oppose.

The debate promises to be an equal match-up on paper with both teams exhibiting tons of talent and promise over their quota of debates last year.

The CIS team will most likely field an all girl team comprising of Tamara Fernando (C), Menakshi Uduwela and Manjaree Gamage. Of their 14 first round debates, CIS emerged victorious in 11 encounters and led the table comfortably at the conclusion. However, they will surely miss the services of some key debaters who will not be available for the grand final debate.

The STC team is expected to be made up of Minaal Wickremasinghe and former Sri Lankan team members Sanjit Dias and Vinura Ladduwahetty (C). In contrast to CIS, STC got off to a rather poor start to this year's league, but recovered in time to scarcely edge out last year's victors Wesley College in a battle of points. However, with a more successful 2nd half compared to their opponents, STC will enjoy the benefit of momentum going into Saturday.

We wish to invite all members and well wishers to grace this event