Three students from Chennai excel at world debate contest

For the first time, Team India, consisting of five debaters, has emerged as world champions at the prestigious World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC) 2019. The team was selected and trained by the Chennai-based Indian Schools Debating Society (ISDS). Out of the five debaters, three — Tejas Subramaniam, Saranya Ravindran, and Prithvi Arun — are from Chennai. The team defeated Canada in the final, proposing the motion ‘This house regrets the glorification of soldiers as heroes’.

Tejas has also been awarded the title of the Best Speaker and is the second speaker from India to receive this honour. “While I was in Class 7, one of my teachers suggested that subjects like economics and political science could solve major social problems and I started reading about them. At the same time, another teacher recommended that I try debating on these two topics. That’s how I started a liking for debating. From then on, I have been participating in various debate competitions,” says the Class 12 student of Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School.

The youngster loves to explore events that are happening in developing countries because more often, such topics are sidelined in debates. “Once I complete my studies, I wanted to become an economist or work in international development. I wanted to do something that will have an impact on others (especially, less privileged) and I think economic development would help me do that,” hopes Tejas.

It’s high time we produced a generation of smart public speakers because often people are deterred from going into debating because of various reasons. “The best way to instill interest in debating among school children is by setting up debate clubs in schools. That way, we could focus on developing critical thinking skills of children from a young age,” he adds.

Debating helps in gaining multi-faceted knowledge cutting across several disciplines outside a child’s academic subjects and Saranya Ravindran agrees with it. A Grade 11 student from Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School, she says that debating has helped her to express herself and articulate her thoughts. “You don’t look at things as just news but tries to find a deeper meaning to it. Debating helps you to develop critical thinking skills — the ability to make rational and well thought out arguments in addition to questioning the evidence behind a particular stance,” she says.

Another debater from Chennai, Prithvi Arun tells us that debating has provided him with the opportunities to talk to various talented and intelligent individuals and has allowed him to acquire skills for socialising. “The process of debating has helped me understand the numerous aspects of an issue, various solutions to a problem and the different ways in which the mechanisms of the solution might affect different stakeholders. As a result of this, I am always able to keep an open mind about taking a path in life or to listen to any qualms others might have with that solution.

“In terms of knowledge gain, I have gained immensely about various topics from social justice to criminal justice to the environment. The process of debating itself has taught me to condense a large amount of information into concise key ideas and this has also helped me in school,” says that Grade 12 student from Sri Sankara Senior Secondary School.

One of the members of Team India, Bhavya Shah became the first visually impaired speaker to debate in a WSDC final and to make it among the top 10 speakers.