Kathmandu, 21 July, 2019: In the upcoming World Schools Debate Championship (WSDC), which is beginning next week in Bangkok, Thailand, Nepali national schools debate team is all set to represent Nepal. The team comprises of five debaters Ameesha Rayamajhi, Anudit Basnet, Anushuya Thapa, Pratyush Ghimire and Pragyan Acharya; team manager/ coach Milan Bishwakarma; and two other judges Nishan Sah and Priyanka Raya Acharya.
WSDC is the world’s largest and most prestigious school level debate championship with around 63 nations coming together to debate on social, moral and political issues in Worlds Schools Style format. Debate Network Nepal (DNN), the national debate organization had announced the team a couple of months ago and since then the members has undergone intense preparatory camps. DNN invited experienced debaters/adjudicators like Adel Mostaque Ahmed, Asif Mehedi Adi, Iffat Sumaiya from Bangladesh and Bansal Kartik from India to help the team prepare better.
Nepal made its first appearance in Doha 2010 followed by Scotland 2011. Debating movement started becoming more organized from the year 2014 in Nepal and thus its third participation in Singapore 2015 Championship saw Nepal’s ranking improve significantly. Nepal broke the national record with 4 wins 14 ballots in 2018. WSDC 2019 will be the 7th participation of Nepal in this global championship.
The team members were selected through a national team screening that followed 5th National WSDC Debate Championship, Maha Kumbha 2018. Debate Network Nepal has been voluntarily coordinating the process. Unlike many other nations where institutions or governments fund the participation, Nepali delegations still have to fund such participations on their own due to government’s indifference.
In world schools, three debaters represent each team on stage and each debater delivers an eight minutes long speech. Towards the end of the debate, one among the first two debaters from both sides comes to conclude the hour long debate with reply speeches. They get an hour to prepare during the impromptu rounds. Motions, or topics, appear from a variety of ranges.
The team is leaving for Bangkok on 24th July for a thirteen days’ trip where the team is also looking forward to a lot of learning, networking and fun.
