Advancing Academic Extra-Curriculars: Speech and Debate India hosts first of its kind Online National Debate Tournament
The tools required for online education have been steadily progressing over the past decade. However, it is only during the COVID-19 pandemic that they have accelerated to the forefront. Speech and Debate India – a life changing Journey backed by Research, with fun courses and thrilling competitive events for grade 1 to 12 students, believes we are at an inflection point in how to deliver globally proven pedagogical advances to empower our talented children across the country to compete in rigorous academic extra-curriculars online, while collaborating and learning together.
To advance their stance on online extra-curricular learning, Speech and Debate India will broadcast the National Debate Tournament online on Sunday, 12th July, 2020 wherein High School students will debate, ‘Reimagining Global Education.’ Consecutive two-year Debate Champion in the State of Illinois, USA in the late 1980’s and the Founder of Speech and Debate India, Mr. Rajiv Kacholia explains, “Speech and Debate India leverages technology and our unique pedagogy to help kids learn to debate, while debating to learn and think critically about global issues and relevant content. The National Debate Tournament inaugural topic aims to deeply engage the education system’s customers – students – to join a conversation on how global k-12 schools can be reimagined to optimize for Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Happiness, and Societal Impact. Over 2 months, teams have been researching innovations and formulating plans for future k-12 schools. The judging criteria evaluates teams on their creativity, collaboration, and use of evidence and logic to persuasively communicate ideas.”
Open to students across Elementary, Middle, and High School Divisions, the National Debate Tournament, will be featuring India’s top two teams, advancing by competing in an unprecedented 20 rounds of competitive debates with eliminations in each of 4 prior weekends among students from top schools across the country.
The 6 finalists for the National Debate Tournament are:
| TEAM 1: Affirmative | TEAM 2: Rebuttal |
| Student | School | Student | School |
| Shivani Shrotri | Ecole Mondiale World School | Maahir Jain | Jamnabai Narsee International School |
| Saksham Sood | Cathedral and John Connon School | Jash Jain | BD Somani International School |
| Aryaman Murdeshwar | American Schoo | Pratham Dave | DY Patil International School |
The finalists have been selected over an intensive 3 month period by conducting multiple Regional Tournaments with students debating the Economic and Healthcare needs of India in response to COVID-19, as well as Qualifier rounds debating Reimagining Global Education, with more than 400 Indian students from Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Dubai, Hyderabad, Indore, London, Mumbai, New York, and others. Moreover, to help provide very detailed preparation for the National Tournament, Speech and Debate India introduced a supplementary live online tournament training course, which met in smaller groups daily over 4 weeks in live online classes featuring debate drills and topic analysis on the future of Global Education. The course saw an overwhelming response and was oversubscribed at 250%.
“Research demonstrates that debaters advance in reading, writing, and life skills. We use exciting games and challenge our students to extend beyond their personal opinions and explore alternative perspectives through rigorous analysis and discussion. Children dive into topics, become self-motivated to read and process information faster, while aspiring to formulate creative ideas supported by evidence-based reasoning,” Mr. Kacholia further describes.
Free registration to attend the one of its kind National Tournament High School Debate event online, Sunday, 12th July, 2020, is now open for all students, parents and educators.
