Damascus and the provinces-Sana
Sixty teams participate in the third national championship of school debates at the governorate level held by the Syrian Trust for Development and the Excellence and Creativity Commission for high school students "tenth and eleventh grades" and will continue until the thirty-first of this month.
The tournament, which aims to promote a culture of excellence in opinion and creativity in dialogue among the young generation, includes three phases, the first at the school level, the second at the provincial level and the third at the national level, in order to choose the team that will represent Syria in the world championship for school debates scheduled to be held in Mexico next July.
The teams participating in the current phase include 184 male and female students who qualified from the qualifying schools in which three thousand male and female students participated from the governorates of "Damascus, Rural Damascus, Quneitra, As-Suwayda, Homs, Hama, Tartus, Lattakia and Aleppo".
Zaghara indicated that the debates benefit students by expanding their horizons of thinking, accepting the other opinion and the ability to possess proofs and arguments, in addition to supporting their culture with information on many social issues and helping them to develop public speaking and presentation skills on a personal level.
Trainer Ayat Al-Hajj Ahmed said that students are trained on how to deliver, the art of public speaking, dealing with reactions and dialogue, and ways to search for information and how to analyze it to communicate it to the recipient in a correct way according to their point of view, indicating that the controversial sentences of the debate are chosen from topics close to the students ’culture and suit their age from the middle School and the environment in which they live.
Judgment Ahmed Abdel-Baset indicated that the arbitration process takes place at three levels, namely, "style, content and strategy", considering that the debate is a promising and important skill for any student of this age who teaches how to think critically and how to deal with matters rationally, whether in his personal life or his professional or academic path.
Each of the students, “Muhammad Omar Qazziz and the well-being of Jabira and Sima Debs” stressed the importance of the debates and their role in building their personality because it is a way of life that polishes the skills and abilities that motivates them to search for reliable information and express it in the best way, as well as discovering weaknesses in the opposite team and building arguments on the basis of them, inviting their colleagues to participate. In competitions and not to miss the opportunity.
In Lattakia, 16 teams from different schools participate in the championship, competing within the Sheikh Dhaher Community Lighthouse of the Syrian Trust for Development.
Al-Taher Muhammad, a member of the National School Debating Committee and a former coaching instructor at the Syrian Trust for Development, said in a statement to Sana correspondent that the tournament will be held for the third year in a row, and at this stage the team that will represent Lattakia Governorate will be chosen in the final stage and will be composed of three main members and two additional members.
Coach Muhammad Ali notes that what distinguishes the tournament this year is that it is divided into two parts. Prepared debates that allow the teams to participate for a week to prepare and search online and collect facts and use them to discuss the controversial sentence presented and improvised debates where the participants are given a dialectical sentence an hour before the start of the debate and aims to develop their ability to Logical thinking, analysis, communication of ideas and persuasion.
Trainer Dina Al-Munajjid pointed to the importance of the debates in developing students' skills such as self-confidence and speaking in front of the public strongly, in addition to how to arrange and present ideas and the ability to make decisions and the need to acquire these skills at an early age based on their positive impact during the course of their lives.
The student, Majd Khaddour, from the National Center for Distinguished, saw that the debates are a new field of distinction and a lifestyle that helps young people possess the necessary skills for a better future. .
Haider indicated that there is no specific subject in which students compete, but controversial topics are raised that address societal issues that already exist and are formulated in a deliberate manner to be within the context specified for them and commensurate with the ideas of students and their ages and are trained in body language and how to address and expand their cultural perceptions.
The students participating in the debates in Tartous expressed their happiness with this new experience, which enriched their way of thinking and made them more able to discuss and analyze and accept the opinions of others in a new way they did not know before. The student, Khader Kharata, who was among the five qualified students, said that the atmosphere was wonderful, whether during the preparation period or During the debate regarding the atmosphere of familiarity and understanding that prevailed during the two rounds.
The student Rasha Ibrahim indicated that her friends who had previously participated in the debates encouraged her to participate, indicating that one of the most things that I learned was to think differently about most of the things she faces in life and in a rational and constructive manner.
Student Maria Haidar saw that the experience added a great moral value to it in terms of the importance of dealing within one team, which strengthens the personality of the individual and makes him more balanced and able to deal with others in a decent manner, while the student Ali Dakkour considered that this experience gained him a new way to understand life by presenting multiple topics, discussing and listening To different opinions.
In Sweida, six students from different schools participated in the competitions in two teams, where Gad Masoud, director of the activities of the Syrian Trust for Development in the endosperm, Daraa, and Quneitra, in a statement to SANA correspondent today, drew attention to the importance of the debate program in monitoring the cases of excellence and creativity among students in the debates skills “research, dialogue and persuasion” Embracing and qualifying them and directing their energies in a way that reflects on building their personality, enhancing their culture, empowering them, spreading the culture and values of dialogue and accepting the other opinion.
And the jury member, Uday Abu Fakhr, pointed out that the students ’level was excellent and the students were able to speak with fluency and comfort within the new improvised dialectical sentence and within the criteria followed for the evaluation.
The female students, Yara Ashti, Noor Salam, and Hanan Soldiers expressed their happiness in participating in the debates, and confirmed that the experience gained them a lot of personal strength and dialogue skills, and brought and presented the arguments and proofs that serve the controversial topic presented, while each of the students, “Rim Jumoul, Tima Al-Abdullah and Rowad Abu Ghanem” explained that the experience She was rich and gained her self-confidence.
The competitions depend on a special debate mechanism called "the global school-style debate" and in each debate two teams compete, one of which supports the topic being discussed and the other denies the same topic regardless of the contestants ’personal opinion. Each debate consists of three letters and each speaker provides a speech for four minutes and then presents each The two teams have a three-minute response letter, and the final word for the advocacy team is managed by each panel. Four referees evaluate each team in terms of time, style, content, and strategy.
