On Friday 30th April, the Young Parliamentarians of St. Edward’s College took part in the National Debating Competition organized by Aġenzija Żgħażagħ. Thanks to the mentoring of the youth worker Mr. Roderick Borg and the guidance of their teacher Ms. Samantha Abela (Head of Extra Curricular Activities), the boys have learnt to debate various topics using the principles of Ethos, Pathos and Logos. The introductory speaker had to the open the debate with a 2 minute speech whilst the other two speakers had 1.30min each.
The students met regularly during their break times and used the facilities of modern technology and MS Teams to connect both with Mr. Borg but also with some fellow team members who were following online lessons and activities from home.
In the National Competition a total of 16 schools took part. In the groups phase the students had to debate the following themes:
- Il-kunsill tal-istudenti għandu jkun magħmul biss minn studenti tal-aħħar sentejn tal-iskola sekondarja.
- L-ħrejjef ibiddlu l-perċezzjoni tat-tfal fuq ir-realtà.
- L-iskola għandha tkun obligatorja sal-età ta’ 18-il sena.
The debates were all in Maltese, and our students worked together as a team to jot down points for each other, help for rebuttal arguments and plan for these debates. Even though we did not make it through to the semi-finals, the boys were very satisfied with their performance. It was a challenge for them, but they have learnt a lot from this experience.
The Young Parliamentarians team for the year 2020-2021 was made up of:
- Miguel Aquilina – Yr 9
- Paul Vincent Bezzina – Yr 9
- Luke Grech – Yr 9
- Gianluca Baldacchino – Yr 10
- Timothy Desira – Yr 10
- Gianluca Baldacchino – Yr 10
- Enrique Ellul – Yr 10
