The national schools debate programmes, Debating Matters India, for students of Class XI and Class XII from across the country will be organized by the British Council. The contest will begin with an Online Elimination Test (OET) which will be conducted between July 26 and August 20, 2011. Each School can register only one debate team with a minimum of four students or a maximum of six students, along with a debate co-coordinator teacher. The registration process will begin on 26th July 2011.
After registering online, the debate team will download a topic guide from which they can prepare for the OET. Upon completion of the test, 12 schools will be short listed to participate in the regional finals. Live debates will then be held with the regional finalists in the eight cities of Delhi, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Guwahati adn Kolkata.
Eight teams from the regional finals will secure a place in the national finals to be held in New Delhi between 17-19 November 2011. Debating Matters is a debate competition program intended for high school students in India. A British schools’ debate programme, originally pioneered by the Institute of Ideas (IOI), UK and running successfully for the last seven years there and also received by the Indian schools from 2008. More details can be obtained from http://www.britishcouncil.org/india-projects-debatingmatters-home.htm. The winners of the past Debating Matters competitions are Delhi Public School Megacity, Kolkata and DAV Sector – 15, Chandigarh.
Important Rounds and Dates:
1) Online Elimination Test (OET): 26 July – 20 August 2011
2) Regional Finals:
New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata: 27 September 2011
Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Bangalore: 29 September 2011
Guwahati: 30 September 2011
3) National Finals at New Delhi: 17 – 19 November 2011.