Ladies and Gentlemen...

In a world where information is easily available from a variety of sources, it is not merely enough to educate children by giving them access to information. In today's world, the ability to analyse, assimilate and internalise information logically and present one's opinion on it through a rational and analytical mechanism is a skill of exceeding importance. Students find themselves increasingly taking recourse to skills of persuasion to make a difference and build and effective democracy, and members of a responsible society such as ours are expected to end encouraged to participate in the formulation of opinion and policies. Such skills are also integral to performing well in various situations in real life, whether this is an interview or being able to logically structure answers to questions of various sorts.

Debating is an extremely effective exercise in conveying exactly these skills to students in a method that is challenging, educational and fun. by presenting students with a competitive platform wherein they exercise their ability to persuade through a combination of logic and knowledge, students gain confidence and imbibe better verbal and cognitive skills.

Parliamentary debating is a team based debating format which is inspired from debate procedures followed in parliaments all over the world. by placing the debate in a context that requires participants to argue the benefit or loss rising out of a policy stance, it provides the students with a perspective on issues which they might not have dwelled upon before. We see students between the ages of 14-18 benefiting most from this debating technique as it shapes their perceptions of society at a stage where they are still developing their inquisitive and comprehension skills.

Even though parliamentary debating is perhaps one of the most famous styles of debating the world over, the organisation and conduction of parliamentary debating in India, especially at the school level is rather poor. in order the improve the current standards of debating and bring Bangalore schools up to the level of international schools as far as this activity is concerned, the students of NLS Bangalore have taken it upon themselves to organise a school debating tournament, the NLS Debate Junior. In the process that leads up to the event, we hope that our efforts along with the cooperation of the schools, will foster a spirit of inquiry and a culture of questioning that will not only lead to a betterment of debating standards, but will also mould the students into better citizens, ones that contribute effectively to society by never failing to evaluate all that they see and perceive.

Watch this space for more!