Boosting academic excellence via secondary schools’ debate
A News Analysis by Obike Ukoh, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
The window for the national school debate, annually organised by the President’s School Debate Nigeria (PSDN), was opened in the year 2000.
In that year, former President Olusegun Obasanjo formally recognised PSDN as a non-governmental organisation that should conduct school debating activities in Nigeria.
Members of the group were drawn from both the private and public sectors of the economy.
Inter-school debate competitions commenced in 2001, with 114 federal unity schools, but were later extended to comprise public secondary schools and primary schools at the state level.
The debate is geared towards promoting academic excellence, harmony and most especially, unity among the youth.
Its goal is to help students develop practical skills in public speaking and nurture in them the culture of employing dialogue in conflict resolution.
Sixteen years after, analysts say that PSDN has lived up to expectations, as school debating competitions have become an annual rite since 2001.
The debating activity has even assumed an international dimension, as PSDN has participated in international debating championships in overseas countries such as South Korea and the Czech Republic.
It has also participated at the World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC) in Qatar, Scotland, South Africa, Turkey, Thailand and Singapore from 2010 to 2015.
Students who performed well at the national finals of the PSDN competition are registered to participate in such international championships.
The students who will represent Nigeria at the 2016 edition of WSDC are from Ebonyi, as the Ebonyi Centenary Debate Team emerged this year’s national champions of the debate which took place between May 24 and May 29.
No fewer than 13 teams from Taraba, Imo, Niger, Ebonyi, Anambra, Kaduna, Oyo, Sokoto, Benue and FCT participated in the competition that was held in Abuja.
Mr Dare Olotu, the National Coordinator of PSDN, who spoke at the opening ceremony, said that the essence of the competition was to bring Nigerian students to debate on issues affecting the country.
He said that winning team would have automatic qualification to represent Nigeria at the forthcoming international schools debate in Indonesia.
According to him, the topics that are debated on are: “This House Believes that the Agricultural Sector has Better Prospects for Nigeria’s Economic Growth.
“This House Believes that Posting of National Youth Corps Members should be Limited to their Geo-political Zones.’’
Dr Adaeze Nwuzor, Team Leader of Ebonyi Centenary Debate Team, who spoke to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) before the commencement of the debate, expressed optimism that the team would perform creditably.
Nwuzor, who is the Senior Special Assistant to Gov. Dave Umahi of Ebonyi on Higher Education, said that members of the team were selected after a thorough process and preparation.
She said that the Ebonyi team had been in the frontline of school debates, adding that it had gone to Qatar as well as several other countries and came back with trophies in the past five years.
“We started by training the trainers — debate handlers; then, we went round the 13 local government areas and selected the best speakers from each local government.
“We also went to the three senatorial zones and selected the best speakers; then at the semi-grand finale, we selected the best speakers.
“We were asked to come here with five representatives but we are 25 because our governor wants Ebonyi children to visit Abuja and see what is happening in other parts of Nigeria; the students are excited about it,’’ she said.
According to her, Umahi has been giving the team his full support in terms of finance because of his interest in human development programmes.
The governor, who was visibly elated when he received the trophy from the state’s representatives, announced a N6 million reward for the team.
Umahi said that N4.5 million would be shared among the debaters, instructors and their schools, while the remaining N1.5 million was for the Office of the Governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Higher Education which coordinated the team’s preparations.
“The debaters will get 70 per cent of the amount; their schools will get 20 per cent, while their instructors will get 10 per cent.
“This is to appreciate the efforts of the debaters in placing the state above other states of the country and the team’s officials for their immeasurable contributions.
“We have a covenant with God to be the first state in the country and His strength has given us the enablement to start realising the promise.
“The Catholic Church in the state has also appreciated the efforts of these worthy heroes by offering them scholarship up to the secondary school level,’’ he said.
The governor directed the commissioner for education to liaise with relevant authorities to ensure that quizzes and debates became integral part of the school curriculum.
He said that intelligent students, such as those in the team, would never indulge in any form examination malpractice in efforts to pass their examinations.
Umahi also approved a tour of Ghana for the team, as part of efforts to adequately prepare the squad to represent Nigeria in international debate competitions in Germany and Indonesia in July and September respectively.
Also speaking, Nwuzor thanked the governor for giving the team the desired financial and moral support which ensured the debaters’ victory.
“The debaters were assembled from the 13 local government areas of the state, which also produced two teachers each for necessary tutorials and selection.
“The best four debaters from each local government area in the primary and secondary schools were selected for the zonal competition, where we eventually picked the state’s team,’’ she said.
Nwuzor also thanked Umahi for his decision to name the team as “Ebonyi State Debate Team’’, instead of naming it after the governor’s name as was the case in the past.
Miss Esther Obike-Ukoh, one of the team’s lead debaters, expressed gratitude to the governor for the team’s reception, saying they had been motivated to win more laurels for the state.
“I am also thankful to my parents for teaching me the rudiments of debating, as this facilitated my emergence as one of the best debaters in the state,’’ she said.
Obike-Ukoh also thanked her school, Ebonyi State University Staff Secondary School, Abakaliki, for sharpening her skills in debating.
“I was one of the representatives of my school in the university staff schools’ debating competitions, held at the University of Port Harcourt and Nasarawa State University, Keffi, in 2015,’’ she added.
She, nonetheless, appealed to the relevant authorities to sustain the schools’ debate in Ebonyi and the country at large.
Mr Ukaegbu Kazi, a retired school principal in Abia, said that Ebonyi won the competition because of determination of the state government, which also provided an environment that was conducive to such academic exercise.
Kazi said that Ebonyi, which was considered in certain quarters as educationally disadvantaged, had been able to prove to the entire country that it was working very hard to catch up.
“Ebonyi people are working hard to catch up and they have proved that they are very serious about it.
“There is a lesson to be learnt: definitely, hard work and determination pay.
“Also, Ebonyi is still among one of the states in the South-East geopolitical zone where teachers are not owed salaries.
“The state government is, indeed, ready to make Ebonyi the `Salt of the Nation’, as the state prides itself,’’ he added.
Kazi said that the main lesson to be learnt from the Ebonyi victory was the need to properly equip public schools, as majority of the debaters were students of public schools.
All the same, stakeholders want PSDN to sustain and enhance the debating activities, insisting that they will foster academic excellence and spirit of competitiveness among Nigerian students.
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