Elizabeth Moir Debate

The OSC Debate Team participated in the Elizabeth Moir Debate Championships held in the Moir School premises on Saturday, 28th September. Team OSC comprised of MUNers Hasith Balapatabendi, Anthony Weiss and Jamilla Akbarally. The team was chaperoned by OSC Teacher Ms. Tassy Dahlan and OSC Parent Mrs. Balapatabendi.



To quote Ms. Dahlan, “In the preliminary round with Moir, the OSC team proposed that “Home schooling is best”; and in the second round against Methodist College, OSC opposed the motion “We should ban animal testing”.Sadly,OSC lost to British School by the narrowest of margins. While waiting for the judges’ decision, everyone was convinced we were through to the finals and there was a shocked silence when the judges announced that the debate was won by British. However, the judges raised very valid points. The topic OSC proposed in the semi-finals was “Democracy should be imposed”. While Hasith and Anthony put forth great points to show that democracy was the way forward, as opposed to communism, monarchy or dictatorship, the key element they omitted from their speeches was that democracy should be “imposed”. The judges stated that had the topic been “Democracy is awesome”, OSC would have won the debate. It was fantastic to witness how our two young team “grew” in confidence as the day progressed.