Goals

October 24, 2006

Background

The Debate Association (Singapore) has grown and developed since its inception in 1999. While this evolution should continue in the future, the Association has also matured to an extent that it has become possible to develop certain broad but crucial core principles. These principles guide the overall policies and programmes of the Association. This paper aims to set out these principles for the use of subsequent Executive Committees, such that the Association’s central Vision and Mission are maintained.

Aims of the Debate Association (Singapore)

1. The Debate Association (Singapore) aims to set policy and best-practice norms for the administration and execution of all formats of school debate up to the university level and advise schools, organizations and MOE on these policies.
2. The DA(S) aims to be the primary source for information, contacts, and policy issues for any entity that wishes to conduct a school-level debate in Singapore.
3. The DA(S) aims to represent Singapore’s debate community in international forums such as WSDC.
4. The DA(S) aims to nurture, cultivate and grow the community of debate practitioners, including students, coaches, judges, teachers, and organizations to foster a healthy climate for student debate in Singapore.

Set and Advise Policy

1. The DA(S) should set policy for the betterment of debate in Singapore, bearing in mind the interests of the various stakeholders, like students, teachers, schools, debate administrators and others. As a general principle, we should remember that debating is meant to be an educational activity, and should prioritise the educational growth of debaters. This will ensure that the DA(S) is consistently striving towards making debate more robust and encouraging true intellectual discourse.
2. The DA(S) must also advise schools/organizations/MOE of the best-practice norms on running a competitive or exhibition debate of any format. If the format is new, the DA(S) should ensure to the best of its ability that it is in line with and able to achieve the overall aim of promoting healthy debate. If the format is already in place and accepted by the DA(S) as an acceptable format, the DA(S) should ensure that current guidelines and norms are not deviated from, unless it is deemed necessary for the overall integrity of debating as an activity.
3. The programs and events that the DA(S) coordinates and plans should never compromise our credibility as a national debate policy-setting body. This must be strictly adhered to, especially when conducting activities that earn revenue for our other programs. Specific conflicts of interest may arise when the DA(S) creates a new format for debate and then charges schools for training them in that new format (which may beg the question of whether our intention of changing the format was for the betterment of debate or for the earning of revenue). However, this should not prevent the DA(S) from conducting programs on current / established debate formats that have not originated from the DA(S), or are already in wide-spread practice.

Source of Information, Contacts and Policy

1. The DA(S) should maintain a database of all information regarding large-scale school debate competitions in Singapore. The Association should be able to advise schools on which competitions are available for their level, district, or calendar constraints accordingly, using this database. Organizations in good standing that wish to register their event with the DA(S) will be promoted via the network of contacts for greater visibility.
2. We should compile, update and maintain a database of all members of the debate community in Singapore, including former WSDC debaters, coaches, teachers in charge, and key appointment holders in organizations that run debate-related activities.
3. The DA(S) forum should contain a repository of freely-available debate-related knowledge (both internally generated content as well as internet sources) and information for student debaters, coaches, and teachers to utilize that does not compromise the position and integrity of DA(S)
4. In future, the DA(S) forum should aim to register all student debaters as well.

International Representative for Singapore Debate

1. The DA(S) should continue to serve as a key contact point for international bodies such as WSDC.
2. Additionally, the DA(S) should try to connect with regional debating associations and foster a healthy working relationship, for future cooperation.

Cultivating the Debate Community

1. The DA(S) must maintain an open and inclusive policy in its membership and programs. It should conduct programs, events, workshops, etc to promote debate in all schools in Singapore. The DA(S) should also reach out to schools or districts that are striving to set up debates and assist them in growing their community.
2. The DA(S) should create programs and content (DEP, June/Dec camp, VCDs, books, etc) for learners of debate to enhance their knowledge of debate-related skills, techniques, etc.
3. The DA(S) should also maintain a healthy relationship with our members, conducting activities for their benefit, as well as by ensuring that their time and efforts dedicated to helping the DA(S) are duly recognised and appreciated.

Summary

The mission statement of the DA(S) should serve as a reminder of our aims and goals, and keep us focused in the selection of future projects and programs.
“We aim to foster a culture of debate and critical discourse in English, through the provision of an infrastructure for training and developing debaters in schools, and to serve as a bridge between the Singapore and international debate communities.”

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