CGSL Annual Debating Championship for Girls 2017: Beacon High School grabs $500 Prize

By Abdul Sillah, Unique News Newspaper

The grand final of the National Debating Championship For Girls, a masterpiece show case of girls debating talent, competence, eloquence and composure has culminated with only but one winner at the end, the Beacon High School.

The grand final took place at the British Council Auditorium on Tower Hill and was preceded by preliminaries to other stages including quarter finals, semi-finals and then the main event itself.

The finalists, the Annie Walsh Memorial School and the Beacon High School defeated several opponents on their way to the grand finale which included schools like the Saint Joseph’s Convent, Methodist Girls High School, the Sierra Leone Muslim Brotherhood School, the IMAT School and the Municipal Secondary School.

The Beacon High School ended up grabbing the Five Hundred Dollars prize from the competition by a simple majority of votes from the seven judges on the night. Four Judges gave the winner to the Beacon High School while the other three gave it to the Old Lady.

Consoled

The AWMS however grabbed a consolation prize of Five Hundred Thousand Leones (Le 500,000) from the Chozen Generation Team. The Best Debater in the entire competition, Sandra Ngongor, also grabbed an additional One Hundred Dollars (US$100) from the representative of the Goodwill Ambassador Chernor Bah.

With the stage set, the old lady of Annie Walsh Memorial School were members of the government, vetting the bill “At the very least, all political parties contesting the 2018 elections must run with either a female presidential aspirant or a female running mate”

The Beacon High School took the opposition with Sandra Ngongor being the leader of the opposition and Jennifer Thomas, who was dubbed by the judges as someone who was born in England due to her excellent command of the English language, taking the member of the opposition post. They were of the view that women of Sierra Leone are not yet ready to take up the highest sit in governance come 2018.

With accuracy in speaking, composure, facts to back up arguments, objections and corrections, both teams thrilled the British Council Hall and got the judges describing the heated one hour debate as “a boxing match.”

At the end, as emphasised by the National Coordinator of the Chozen Generation Sierra Leone, Joel Abdulai Kallon, “regardless of the outcome, both teams in the final and all participants are winners, therefore the loser on the day must take it in as it is”

Debater of The Tournament

The Star Debater of this year’s competition, Beacon High School’s Sandra Ngongor an SS 2 pupil said she went as far as reading three constitutions. She thanked the Almighty God, her parents, teachers and her team mate for the enormous support and courage they gave her throughout the competition.

The Debater of the night from the Annie Walsh School Olufemi Hanciles, commended the judges, organisers. She admitted that the defeat was hard to take but they would take it in as they are winners and this is just a setback that they would look at and improve on.

According to her, the judges were fair in handing down their rulings and she accepts it.

Tracy During, the leader of the government for the AWMS, an SS4 student and also the president of the L&DS in her school thanked the organisers and everybody involved in the competition. She said her school would prepare better next time and move on from this defeat.