St. Andrews School holds Inter-School Debates

Hyderabad: The sixth edition of Face-Off, the Inter-School Debate Competition was hosted by the Literary Club of St. Andrews School, Bowenpally on Friday. Young speakers from nine schools took to the podium debating on the motion, “Mankind could become slave to Artificial Intelligence” in the preliminary round.

After a gripping first round, teams from St. Andrews School, Bowenpally, Army Public School, Bolarum, Suchitra Academy and Delhi Public School, Nacharam made it to the finals. They argued for or against, presenting their ideas on the topic, “The American dream is not dead”. Speaking for the motion, K Sampada of St. Andrews School, Bowenpally said, “America is still the best option before us to avail the internationally recognised educational programmes and opt for non-conventional careers. The USA is a safe country, especially for women.” Yash Joshniwal of Suchitra Academy countered, “The reason they call it the American dream is you have to be asleep to believe it.

The amendments in immigration policies and the recent shootouts have created fear in the minds of the people.” During the rebuttal, when a judge posed the question, “Why do Indians still throng the American Consulates?”, Shreesh Kapoor of St. Andrews School replied, “A fraction of Indians remains unaware of the same quality opportunities being made available in our own country and with time, the trend will change”.

At the end of this well contested debate, Anshika Singh of Army Public School, Bolarum walked away with the coveted Best Speaker Award, while Jaziba Shaik of DPS, Nacharam and Yash Joshniwal of Suchitra Academy were awarded the runners up. Tenneti Lahari of DPS, Nacharam bagged the Best Rebuttal. Tenneti Lahari and Jaziba Shaik of DPS were adjudged the Best Team. The event was judged by Satya Naagesh Ayyagary, Editorial Consultant of The Hindu and Sudipta Sengupta, Deputy Metro Editor of Times of India.