[posted on behalf of SMU Debating Society]

Hi everybody,
 
On behalf of the SMU Debating Society, I would like to invite all institutions
across Asia (polytechnics, junior colleges and universities) to join us for our annual SMU British Parliament IV’s on the weekend of 24-25th October, 2009.
 
The tournament details are as follows:

Registration fee
Debaters and Adjudicators: S$15 / pax
Observers: S$20 / pax

Tournament cap: 40 teams

 
A detailed schedule is available at the link below. We encourage you to register
your teams and adjudicators as soon as possible by following the link below; the deadline is 18th October, 2009.

 
While we do not guarantee accommodation, we will be glad to help you with any
special requests (you can email us at smuds@sa.smu.edu.sg)
 
 
We look forward to seeing you soon at the SMU BP IV’s.

 
Sincerely,
Jennifer King
Secretary of Events
SMU Debating Society
 

Tournament Schedule:
http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddgzmt9k_2ccr9kggc

Registration Link:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/embeddedform?key=tFexzxuGQAviiJWu2q6_h2w

'Queenstown Sec Sc is looking for Debate Coach for a new team deating in Div 3 of JG competition in 2010.

Pls email: wenmien@yahoo.com

[Posted on behalf of Reza at reza_mania1 [at] yahoo.com]


Greetings to all debaters & adjudicators .. ..

First of all i would to wish all Selamat Hari Raya.

Since we r done with hari raya and holiday, here comes the long waited event. UiTM IV 2009 will be held in UiTM shah alam and we cordially invite all university in malaysia to participate.

the detail as list below.

date : 10 & 11 October (next 2 week)
time : from 9a.m. to 6p.m.
rego : RM 30

the registration for uitm IV 2009 will be open tomorrow 26th september 2009.
representative from each institution can register through sms or email.

for sms : send REG<institution> <representative name> <number of
team> to +60122765485

for email : i will provide a form attach in malaysian debaters and
send to my email reza_mania1@ yahoo.com

Through out the tournament lunch will be provided.

other inquiries please sms to our UiTM IV 2009 organizer

amin : 0122765485
reza : 0132903122
afiah: 0162325908

thank you

REZA
convener UiTM IV 2009

SINGAPORE SECONDARY SCHOOLS DEBATING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2010

Organised and sponsored by Julia Gabriel Centre for Learning
Co-organised by Debate Association Singapore
 
 
Julia Gabriel Centre for Learning will be organising and sponsoring
the Singapore Secondary Schools Debating Championships for the 12th
time in 2010. Debate Association Singapore will again be working with us as
co-organisers of the championships for next year's competition. We are
delighted to be able to invite your school to participate in this tournament
again next year.

You will find the entry form attached to this e-mail. If your school would like
participate in the championships again in 2010, please fill the entry form out
and forward it to me by Thursday 24 September. You can submit it by post,
fax, or by e-mail as an attachment.
 
TOURNAMENT FORMAT AND STRUCTURE

As was the case this year, the 2010 championships will be split into three
divisions known as Division I, Division II and Division III.

All participating teams will compete in three preliminary round
debates against other schools. These will be held over three Friday
evenings in February and March. Provisional dates for the 2010
championships have been set as follows:

       -  Preliminary Round 1
          Friday, 5th February
 
       -  Preliminary Round 2
          Friday, 5th March

      -  Preliminary Round 3
         Friday, 26th March
 
      -  Quarter-Finals
         Friday, 9th April
 
      -  Semi-Finals
         Friday, 16th April
 
      -  Grand Finals
         Friday, 23rd April (Divisions II & III)
         Friday, 30th April (Division I)
 
These dates are still provisional at this stage – changes may be made.

Following the preliminary rounds, the top eight teams in each division
will progress to the quarter-finals. The debate motions for all rounds will
be released to the teams one week in advance, except for the quarter-finals
and semi-finals which will be 'impromptu' rounds where the teams will receive
the motions only one hour in advance. (In past years, only the semi-finals have
been an 'impromptu' round, however for 2010 the quarter-finals will
also become a one-hour preparation round.)  The Grand Finals will be held
towards the end of April, and all debaters involved in the competition will
be invited to attend. Awards will be presented to the top 20 individual speakers
in each division, as well as to the debaters on teams who reach the quarter-finals
or further.

Debaters in the championships must be studying at secondary school-level
in 2010. (International schools and schools with integrated programmes
must ensure that their debaters are of the same age and studying at the
same level as students in traditional local secondary schools in Singapore.)

Debates are run according to the rules and format of the World Schools
Debating Championships (with slight modifications). Debaters in
Divisions I and II make speeches of six minutes in length, and teams
are allowed to offer points of information during speeches by members
of the other side. In Division III, debaters speak for five minutes
and there are no points of information.

As was the case in 2009, all schools in all three divisions will be
able to enter just one team to compete in the championships. (Schools
are NOT allowed to enter a team in more than one division, or enter
more than one team in the same division.) Applications for schools to
enter a different division to the one they competed in during 2009
will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

REGISTRATION OF TEAMS

An entry form for the championships is attached to this e-mail. In
order for us to begin making the necessary arrangements, our request
is that schools who wish to enter the competition return the entry
form to via post, fax or e-mail by Thursday 24 September. Though we
may be able to accept entries later than this, we will not be able to
guarantee a place in the tournament to any school which registers
after this date.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any queries. My contact
details are as follows:

Karen Foo
Administration Manager of School of Education
Julia Gabriel Centre for Learning Office
583 Orchard Road
#09-02 Forum
Singapore 238884
E-mail:  karenfoo@juliagabriel.com

We very much hope that your school will be able to participate in the
Singapore Secondary Schools Debating Championships again in 2010.
 
You have my best wishes.

Yours faithfully,

Karen Foo
Administration Manager of School of Education –  Julia Gabriel Centre for Learning /
Tournament Administrator  –  Singapore Secondary Schools Debating Championships

Hey everybody, for those of you who may not already have read the news, one of the debaters from Team Singapore at WSDC 08 (the team who made it to the Grand Finals at Seoul) was awarded the Singapore Police Force Overseas Scholarship and President's Scholarship 2009. Congratulations!

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_417095.html

From the straits times on Aug 16th:

Three Singaporeans topped their respective courses at Oxford University this year, in a rare and Oxford U2extraordinary showing.They did politics, philosophy and economics (PPE); physics; and law.And one of them is the grandson of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.

Li Shengwu, 24, whose father is Fraser & Neave chairman Lee Hsien Yang, took top spot in his PPE class of 240 students. Shyam Srinivasan, 22, was first among 70 who did physics, while Colin Liew, 23, scored first in law.

Liew’s achievement was reported in The Sunday Times on July 26. The three top scorers are among 13 Singaporeans who graduate from Oxford this year.

The trio’s achievement is unprecedented, said Chim Yi Hua, a fellow PPE graduate with Li. The former president of the Oxford University Malaysian and Singaporean Students’ Association said he could not recall such an unusual outcome in recent years.

“It’s not easy to top one’s cohort — not at all. To have three this year is very rare,” said Chim, 22. Added Li: “It’s one of those things where the element of chance featured a great deal in the outcome.”

Srinivasan said he was not overly surprised by the coincidence. “Singaporeans generally do very well in Oxford.”

Besides topping PPE, Li was named the top overall economics student across Oxford’s 30 colleges that offer PPE and 18 that offer a joint degree in history and economics. He received the Hicks and Webb Medley prize and £300 (RM1,710) in prize money for his achievement.

Li, who is not on a government scholarship, graduated from Balliol College. He attributed his performance in the examinations to the quick-thinking and cool head honed by many years of debating since secondary school.

At the college, he debated with Oxford Union, the university’s debating club whose famous past members include the late former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and former British Prime Minister Edward Heath.

Said Li: “Oxford exams reward people who can write off the cuff. In that sense, debating has some overlap with it. You need to organise information and come up with ideas quickly under time pressure.”

On Aug 5, he and a fellow Oxford debater won the European Universities Debating Championships, outperforming 163 other teams in the English as first language section.

His parents are both graduates of Cambridge University. His father got first class honours in engineering while his mother, corporate lawyer Lee Suet Fern, took a double first in law.

Lee Hsien Yang credits his son’s self-driven and independent nature for his achievements. “Whatever he’s done and accomplished, he’s done on his own and it’s very much to his credit,” he said.

Li returns to Oxford’s Keble College next month to pursue a Masters in Economics. He said: “I liked both philosophy and economics, but I’m specialising in my comparative advantage — I am relatively better at economics.”

As for Srinivasan, a former Indian national from Chennai who became a Singapore citizen in 2006, his interest in physics was sparked at an astronomy competition during his years at Geylang Methodist Secondary School.

The holder of an Overseas Merit Scholarship for teaching was “very stimulated and encouraged” by his tutors at St Hugh’s and hopes to inspire his students later.

“Physics isn’t a popular subject, but it has a lot to offer — the chance to probe fundamental scientific processes and how to explain things right from first principles.”

He will return after completing his Masters in Applied Physics at Columbia University in the United States, and embark on a teaching career after he does his national service.His passion for physics culminated in the Scott Prize for best performance in physics and £300 in prize money.

While the prizes are given out every year, none of the numero unos had aimed for the top spot from the outset. Said Li: “I knew academic prizes existed for top students, but I didn’t make it my goal. My only goal was to do as well as I could.”

Added Srinivasan: “In the end, it was the support from parents and friends, the little things, like a friend cooking for me during the finals, that helped us out.”

The Nanyang Debate Club is looking for passionate and experienced candidates to join our debate coaching team next year. The training frequency is two or three times per week, depending on upcoming projects and competitions.

If you are interested, please contact Kristine Oehlers (Mdm) at kristine@nygh.moe.edu.sg, and include your curriculum vitae.


UPDATE 19/12/09: Thank you to all applicants. The coaching positions for year 2010 have been filled.

To the Asian Debate Community:

I am very pleased to inform you that a lot of teams from various countries have already registered for the first Asians Schools Debate Championship. Among the countries that have registered are Thailand , Bangladesh , Indonesia , Philippines , and Pakistan. For those who have yet to register, registration might close at an earlier date given that we can only accommodate so much. Thank you very much and we hope to see you in Manila !

Yours truly,
Jasper Go
Convenor, ASDC 2009

Dear all,

The DA(S) will be having our AGM on 26th July 2009. If you are a registered adult member and interested in attending the meeting, please email outreach@debates.org.sg for more information.

RSVP by 30th June 2009.

regards,
Gaurav

Hi. I am new here and i am very interested in the programs that the association has planned. I had missed this recent June camp and i am enquiring when would the next camp be held?

Regards