A Report about ITHS Debate Club Activities from Subrina Eusa

A Report about ITHS Debate Club Activities from Subrina Eusa

Updates of a small shout club

True that the club hardly has more members than the total number of fingers on anyone’s hands, and has the notorious stigma of being the “stuff for geeks and nerds” attached to it, ITHS DC, however surprising and unexpected it may seem, has finally managed to earn a respectable position in the English debating society of Bangladesh. So let’s look at what it has gained this year that is worth mentioning.

To begin with, Bangladesh Television (BTV) annually organizes the National English Debate championship, and on 24^th January 2011 International Turkish Hope School faced Mastermind International School in the third round of debates of the tournament. Although you might think winning the previous two rounds against European Standard School and Viqarunnesa Noon School would eventually increase the confidence of our school debaters, but alas this was not the case. To say our debaters freaked out would be an understatement. Mastermind School has the reputation of producing exceptional debaters who reach the finals of all tournaments they ever attend, and win the best speaker awards every time they speak. This did not boost the morals and neither did the topic of the debate which was “The Future of SAARC is hopeful”. Given that we were the opposition party who would have to bash SAARC in BTV (a government owned channel), this proved to be an extra challenge to us as we had to ensure not to sound like SAARC haters (no one wants government troubles duh!) and also to find a way to win although the door leading to that way seemed too small to let us pass through. However, in the end after almost a month of exhaustive googling, case preparing, unending anxiety and continuous delays, success did shine upon us. Our efforts were not wasted. International Turkish Hope School earned the unexpected victory and sure enough anyone who watched the debate in TV could hear the boisterous shrieks of our debaters. Triumph is not only sweet but also loud.

With traditional parliament style under control, we had to reach further to learn more about this theatre of oratory. The last interschool championship had been organized by Rajuk Uttara Model College in October. So needless to say, we were all anxious to join a tournament to brush up our debating skills. Summerfield School and Mastermind School provided the perfect opportunity with the 2^nd Summerfield debate tournament on 4^th -5^th   and Mastermind Interschool Debate Championship on 10^th - 12^th February.

Summerfield School, although known by few, has the status of organizing debate tournaments of excellent quality and utmost challenge in Dhaka. With a team cap of 1 from each school, and each team consisting of a maximum of 5 members, this meant that every institution sent their very best. Of course reaching the quarterfinals was extremely ousted out of our imagination, but the massive amount of challenge did take the already physically ill debaters aback. Still, winning against Bangladesh International School and losing to the swing team with a judge as a speaker in the swing team by only 1 point, did boast us to prepare with greater vigor and verve for the upcoming tournament.

To say that Mastermind debating society held an excellent tournament would be putting it mildly. Arranged at one of the most breathtaking venue (rooftop), and having the friendliest conveners, mastermind tournament was surely once a lifetime experience. Two teams each consisting of 3 members registered from our school and had a total of 5 rounds of debates. All together approximately 46 teams attended, of which only 8 reached the quarters. Turkish Hope’s team 1 defeated South Breeze team 1, Academia team 3, Mastermind team 4, and unfortunately lost to Notre Dame college team 2, and Manarat team 2. But what shall always be regretted is the fact that the in last round which was against Manarat and was the round which decided whether Turkish Hope or Manarat goes to quarters, we lost by only a margin of 1 point. The second team from Turkish consisting of very new and fresh members managed to win against Siddiquis International School team 2, and Universal Tutorial. Even though our neophytes were highly praised for their first efforts, it was clear to all of us that to reach higher we would need to concentrate more, have a regular moderator because given the right opportunities, the future of ITHS DC is definitely hopeful.

To conclude, it’s true that ITHS DC has no medal, cup or stellar success story to showcase, but what it does have is exceptionally devoted creators of the club, strong camaraderie between the members, and hard working, enthusiastic people. With these current components and a little more attention, someday hopefully a future member will be able to talk about the shape of the trophy won rather than the preliminary round wins.

 Thanks to Subrina Fahreen Eusa