Winning team Toronto 1 – © UTS Speech and Debate Society

The tournament at the World Schools Debate Academy 2017 was won on a 6 – 3 split desicion by Toronto 1 (Gautam Manohar, Adithya Chakravarthy, Angela Li, Andrei Comlosan Pop and Mia Richmond; Canada) in Opposition on the motion “THBT developed nations should not recruit high skilled workers such as doctors and engineers from developing countries”.
They debated in the final against the team North European Trade Agreement (Sonia Meehan, Leo Ohl, Julius Schillinger, Luesa Vallin and Mariam Kojo; Finnland/Germany).

The final was adjudicated by Duncan Crowe (c), Kristina Loayza, Jenny Tumas, Rok Hafner, Penny Sadeghi , Malvika Kala, Roel Becker, Elizabeta Korencan and Peter Adamic.

Best speaker of the tournament – © UTS Debate and Speech Society

Best speaker of the tournament was Adithya Chakravarthy from Toronto 1 with a stunning average of 75.3 speaker points. 

WSDA is the international Worlds Schools Debate training program for debaters, teachers, coaches and judges being organised by Slovenian national debate organisation Za in proti, zavod za kulturo dialoga/Pro et contra, Institute of culture of dialogue.
230 participants from almost 30 countries all over the world, including Peru, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Finland, Bahrein, Malasia, South Korea, India, Qatar and Kazahstan, participated in this year’s edition. 2017 was the biggest edition of WSDA so far.

The participants had the chance to choose between over 100 electives on debating strategy and content and afterwards use their newly gained information in 4 practice and 5 tournament debates for everybody. Overall the participants got 100 hours of debate theory, lectures and exercises.

WSDA talking place in the beautiful Julian Alps – © Anastazija Stopar

The lectures were given by experienced trainers from all over the world. This year they were: Tamara Fernando (Sri Lanka), Ivan Koruza (Slovenia), Laura Alviz (Germany), Duncan Crowe (Scotland), Anastazija Stupar (Croatia), Miha Andric (Slovenia), Elizabeta Korenčan (Slovenia), Roel Becker (The Netherlands), Alice Coombes (England), Jernej Podgornik (Slovenia), Kallina Basli (Greece), Peter Adamic (Slovenia), Gillian Hope Tiley (USA), Rhydian Morgan (Wales), Branka Josimov (Serbia), Bojan Marjanović (Croatia), Bojana Skrt (Slovenia), Jure Hederih (Slovenia), Penny Sadeghi (Scotland), Gorazd Jurman (Slovenia), Clare Charlesworth (Australia/ Slovenia), Rok Hafner (Slovenia), Jenny Tumas (USA) and more.

Some of the trainers of WSDA 2017 – © Jenny Tumas

WSDA 2018 will be taking place from the 23rd to 30th June 2018.

The Break

1. Toronto 1 (Gautam Manohar, Adithya Chakravarthy, Angela Li, Andrei Comlosan Pop and Mia Richmond) – 5 wins
2. Germany (Cliodnah Herkommer, Maike Gartner, Zoe Sandle, Marcus Nonn, Ria Rosemver) – 5 wins
3. New Era 1 (Andrew Shin, Peter C., Andras Sarosi) – 4 wins
4. Team Slovenia (Matija Pušnik, Erleta Berisha, Reja Debivc, Sara Brdnik, Dilip Korošec) – 4 wins
5. Clapton (Rae Ferner-Nose, Leila Guedalla Gonn, Maddy Diggin, Matilda Mendick) – 4 wins
6. North European Trade Agreement (Sonia Meehan, Leo Ohl, Julius Schillinger, Luesa Vallin and Mariam Kojo; ) – 4 wins
7. Fake Bahrain (Aditya Mori, Tom Griffith, Ingrid Bahnemann, Abdulwahab Jarkas, Llewellyn Forward) – 4 wins
8. Slytherin (Ana Dimic Benko, Masa Kranjc, Jerneja Lonaj, Nina Zimic) – 4 wins

The Motions:

Rd1: We believe football teams (including national teams) whose fans display racist behaviour should be banned from international competition

Rd2: This House believes that  the actions of female vigilantes in oppressive patriarchal societies are legitimate.

Rd3: This House believes that developed nations should not recruit high-skilled workers (such as doctors, engineers, etc.) from developing countries.

Rd4: This House supports  the  use of “eye in the sky” policing in urban area with high crime rates.

Rd5: THW prohibit Presidents/Heads of State from having private social media accounts.

Quarter Finals: THW ban all treatments and cosmetic surgeries that alters your ethnic appearance.

Semi Finals: This House  supports the right of employees to be disconnected after their working hours.

Final: This House believes that developed nations should not recruit high-skilled workers (such as doctors, engineers, etc.) from developing countries.

hh./jm.