The Student Learning Support had organised its first Undergraduate Debate competition at Labasa Campus. A total of eight schools took part in the inter-school debate series representing the Faculties of Arts, Law and Education (FALE) and the Faculty of Business and Economics. The four schools from FALE were School of Education, School of Law, School of Language Arts & Media and School of Social Science. Representing FBE were School of Management, School of Accounting, School of Agriculture and School of Tourism.
Development and preparation sessions were held by the Student Learning Specialist to prepare the students and brief them on debate features which culminated to the finals in week 14 of the semester. Trial runs were conducted and students were encouraged to include factual data in their presentation. Excitement among students at campus was at its peak as they observed debaters from their schools being nurtured for the competition.
It was a challenging task to get students on board to form teams representing each school from the two faculties. The groups formed and fell many times till they were well groomed. Team work and proper guidance finally rose to a perfect compilation of each participating school teams from the two faculties.
From the series competition the two qualifying schools for the finals from each faculty was the School of Accounting and the School of Management from FBE and the School of Language, Arts and Media versus School of Law from FALE.
Dr. Bogitini, in his opening speech embarked on the importance of such activities highlighting that debate empowers building blocks towards confidence, updating knowledge on contemporary issues and developing leadership qualities as well as teamwork among students.
All twenty-four students from the eight schools each received a Certificate of Participation. The finalist winners from Each Faculty were honoured with a Plaque with a cash prize of $120.00 per team. The runner-up teams were also accorded with the same gesture and a cash prize of $90.00.
The overall aim of this debate was to provide exposure to students to share their opinions and views. This experience allowed students to engage in competition, build public speaking qualities and confidence, engage with other students at the campus and build an environment of healthy discussions. With the overwhelming positive feedback, SLS will continue to bring greater and newer competitions and activities in the future to continue building positive relationship among students and a healthy learning environment.
