Skip to playerSkip to main content
CCNTV6
  • 1 year ago
Barrackpore West Secondary school are in winners row in the Dr Roodal Moonilal Inter-Secondary Schools Debate Competition. They competed against Presentation College, San Fernando, for top honours.

Transcript
00:00Urupuj East MP Dr. Rudal Munilal hosts the second annual inter-secondary school
00:06debate competition. We felt that the time was right given all the crises we have
00:12in education and challenges facing our young people to reinvigorate to
00:18re-energize the arts which include debating which include drama as well
00:26public speaking artistic displays it is very important we believe that our young
00:33people our youth in the school system in particular are exposed to this art of
00:40debating of communicating. He tells the audience many of today's debaters were
00:45once involved in secondary school debating. Use this opportunity to build
00:50your confidence to build your own personal strength of speaking of
00:57convincing of articulation and the sky's the limit you can aim high you can
01:05achieve you know we are achievers so you can achieve anything you put your mind
01:10to. The two schools squaring off for the top spot are Presentation College San
01:16Fernando and Bangpo West Secondary School. You must also have mentors you
01:22must have role models it is also very important you know it's a society where
01:28we have a lot of models but we may not have a lot of role models and it's also
01:33important in this process today that you identify with persons who have been
01:37there who have succeeded who you can emulate. Their topic where as school
01:42violence may be seen as a reflection of societal ills and whereas schools may be
01:48the immediate environment of school violence should government be more
01:52responsible and more involved in dealing with the current violence in schools.
01:57Presentation College supported the motion. Violence can be both physical and
02:02psychological as clearly stated within these sources here root out school
02:07violence incidents of Perio West a student was stabbed that's physical and
02:11we also have the psychological effects with a schoolboy Jaden Lauchan suicide
02:15he was bullied to the point that he committed suicide a psychological
02:20reference. Especially as the right to safety is a tenet under the United
02:25Nation Convention on the Rights of a Child. What exactly is a right it's a law
02:32who made the law not the teachers in school it's the government therefore the
02:36government should be responsible for ensuring that children are safe in
02:41school as they clearly state in their law. This is also backed up in 2023 Dr.
02:46Gatsby Dolly affirms every child deserves a safe learning environment
02:51with the lack of comprehensive policies this commitment remains unfulfilled. Now
02:58why does it remain unfulfilled because the government isn't involved.
03:02Barakpore West opposed the motion.
03:04How much do you expect the government to do? How much?
03:08The government cannot protect every student from societal ills.
03:12Children are born into a society where they are naturally influenced.
03:18Some children are born with good morals but are eventually exposed to influences
03:24and lastly parents need to take a responsibility because it's their child
03:31they are sending out. Police they say can only act after a crime has been
03:36committed. Just recently there was a case of bullying between two female students in a
03:41CEDRA secondary school that escalated in the mothers of the children outside the
03:46school on the 20th of October. If the mothers of these children are displaying
03:53violence in front of their own child, won't the child automatically inhabit the same behaviour?
04:02And what about the statistics which show that most acts of school violence occur in government schools?
04:09Many of the cases and incidents of school violence occur in government schools.
04:15These government schools are directly attached to the government of our country
04:20so they should hold a moral and legal obligation to uphold a safe environment for a conducive learning environment.
04:30But the opponents argued one cannot expect the government to come to your homes and raise your children.
04:38It all led to an impressive debate says one judge.
04:43The calibre of the debate is quite significant and I can speak for my colleagues on the table
04:50that there were significant areas that really impressed us. The research that went into the topics
04:59and especially I'm speaking like an academic, when you use what we call specific examples
05:06and you demonstrate that you have researched the topic and you can put forward what you call a credible argument or counter-arguments.
05:13This is what was very impressive from the eight schools and from the teams.
05:19In the end, it would be Bharatpur West secondary school to walk away with the trophy for the second year straight.
05:26Arvishi Tiwari, Ruknarain TV6 News.
Be the first to comment
Add your comment