International Schools’ Debate League 2019

On 19 and 20 January, the ACS (International) Debate Society organised the 4^th iteration of the Singapore International Schools’ Debate League (SISDL). Running it for the second time in two consecutive years, we successfully hosted the 42-team competition from 21 institutions locally and overseas.

During the event, teams went head-to-head on intricate motions about economics, social and political issues, such as the prepared round motion: “THW financially incentivises MNCs to set up their headquarters in economically underdeveloped regions”. After several rounds of high-level discourse, Raffles Junior College emerged as the champions for the Open Break, and Singapore American School (Team B) for the International Break.

Right from the planning stage in September 2018, our team could not have achieved this feat without the help from our teachers, fellow students and alumni. We would like to thank the school and Dr Achter for their support for the event, and for allowing us to use the school premises as the venue for the competition, as well as our teachers, Ms Zantos, Ms Danielle, and Ms Kom, for their keen advice and encouragement during this planning process and the event. Of course, this competition could not have been brought to fruition without the aid of our coach, Ms Viha, our alumni, Daniel Lo and others.

We would also like to acknowledge the PA crew, especially Mr Gregory Poo Kim Chye, and all the volunteers who had taken their time out of the weekend to help us run the competition: Adiva Fahrani Amir, Zhang Ruiyang, Chereese Tan, Riya Sanjay, Janet Tedjasasmita, Amanda Ong Si Ying, Saranya Madhavan, Priyanka Kaur Bajaj, Roisin Lee, Michelle Ho, Larissa Chan, Evelyn Goh, Han Nguyen, Manya Nahata, Sara Goh, Ricky Sharma, Kwan Wing Yan Phoebe, Lu Peihan, Arya Jamaji, Jade Chan, Alden Bay, Jade Chang, Angad Singh Bhalla, Dorris Wang, Hugo Tan Ern, Lauren Chye, Jaeger Hong, Michael Chan, Han Seung Min, Junha Park, Clarissa Chan, Rachel Lee, Daniel Lau, and Sin Hau Nam. We were gratified to receive many compliments about the smooth running of the event, the beauty of our campus, and the good manners of our friends who helped us host the event.

Although our time as executive heads for SISDL is coming to an end soon, we hope that the legacy of the competition can be carried forward by the future competitive members of the debate team. Best of luck to the next batch, as the best is yet to be!

Anahita Bhesania, Anjana Sudharsan, Sunny Singh Debate CCA Executive Committee