Jointly reported by:
Hwang Victoria Jr2S(4)
Tan Hong Zher Jr3Z(1)
Foo Xin Yu Sr2ScH
Kuen Cheng High School English Debate Club sent out three teams to participate in the yearly MCISS English Debate Competition that was held from the 8th to 10th of July 2022. The competition was held online via Zoom video platform with the precaution of Covid-19 in mind. Though the competition took place online, the participants were able to enjoy the debates as if they were held face-to-face physically.
The participants received a list of motions that would be debated before the competition started. This allowed them to prepare their speeches in advance. They also received helpful advice from their Club’s coach, Kiki Liew, regarding arguments they could run and strategies they could implement in the competition.
Before the participants could fight for the grand award, they had to debate fiercely in the preliminaries. The preliminaries consist of four rounds of debate with the debate motion given out in advance. The competition had a rule where only one team per school was able to qualify, this is to prevent competition to be overturned by teams from debate proficient schools and to give teams from schools with not much experience a chance.
The teams Kuen Cheng High School sent each won 2 out of 4 rounds of the preliminary matches with the first team making it into the octofinals. The team, led by Lucas Siah Li Cheng of Sr1ScC, fought hard against Foon Yew High School on the motion “THP a world where religion did not have any concept of the afterlife”. However, they were unsuccessful in their efforts and were eliminated from the tournament.
Soon afterwards, the competition came to an end. Even though the teams weren’t able to receive the grand award, all participants can agree that it was a great experience. It was an unforgettable memory for all the participants.