Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Sri Lanka Schools Debating Championship 2014

The preliminary rounds of the 9th Sri Lanka Schools Debating Championship, organized by the Moot Court and Debating Society of the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, were completed on the 27th and 28th of September 2014. This year's competition saw the participation of 50 teams, and after 7 tiring rounds of debates, the following teams broke through to the next round:

1) Royal College (A)
2) Colombo International School (A)
3) Ladies' College (A)
4) S. Thomas' College (B)
5) S. Thomas' College (A)
6) Ladies' College (B)
7) Ananda College (A)
8) Royal College (B)
9) Methodist College (A)
10) Ananda College (B)
11) Bishop's College (A)
12) Ladies' College (C)

Royal College (A) emerged the only undefeated team, winning all seven preliminary debates.

The top four teams will go straight through to the quarter finals, while the bottom eight will have to fight for a quarter-final spot in a partial octo-final.

The break rounds and the Grand Final of the championship will be held on Saturday 4th October at the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo. We wish all the teams the best of luck.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Team Sri Lanka at the World Schools Debating Championship 2014 - Bangkok, Thailand

The World Schools Debating Championship 2014 was held in Bangkok, Thailand from 5th to 15th August 2014. The following students represented Sri Lanka at the tournament:


1) Maya De Silva Wijeyeratne - Ladies' College
2) Eran Fernando - Colombo International School
3) Shechem Sumanthiran - Royal College
4) Daniel Ferdinandusz - St. Joseph's College
5) Sharuka Wikramanayake - S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia


The young team did well to win 3 of the 7 preliminary debates they took part in, and missed out on improving that record due to Team Namibia's absence at the tournament.


The team lost unanimously to former champions Singapore and this year's ESL champions Malaysia, and split judges off Argentina and tournament heavy-weights Ireland in very close debates.


The team maintained Sri Lanka's clean streak against Japan, and also reversed the record by defeating USA unanimously, and Israel by a 2-1 margin.


Eran Fernando was ranked 8th on the 'English as a Second Language' speaker tab, and 48th on the overall speaker tab.


Our congratulations to the team on its individual and collective performances at the competition.