by Curlan Campbell, NOW Grenada
- St Joseph’s Convent, St George’s win 2018 Grenlec debates
- Bishop’s College awarded $12,000 project award plus other prizes
- Omnisi McNeil voted as People’s Choice for Top Debater overall
St Joseph’s Convent (SJC) St George’s emerged victorious at this year’s 11th anniversary of the Grenlec debates. SJC defeated rivals Bishop’s College 737 points to 665 points during the finals of the debates on Thursday, 22 November 2018 at the Radisson Beach Resort. Last year’s winner, Presentation Brother’s College (PBC), took 3rd place.
The motion debated was ‘Be it resolved that Caribbean education has not met the developmental needs of our region.’
Rebuttal speaker on the SJC debating team, Dominique Aban said it was a very rigorous process leading up to the competition, but it was all worth it. “Really and truly we had to work hard, do our research and bond together as a team because we are in different forms which made it a bit difficult, but we worked together as a team.”
Aban said the Carriacou team proved to be a very worthy opponent. “We expected them to come prepared for us, but we were very happy that things worked out in our favour and we would like to congratulate them as well.”
In the end, the SJC debating team walked away with a $30,000 project award for the school along with Apple MacBook Pro laptops for debaters and coaches, educational gift voucher and a challenge trophy together with certificates of merit.
Bishop’s College was awarded a $12,000 project award along with other prizes. One of their team members Omnisi McNeil was voted as People’s Choice for Top Debater overall. McNeil said the debate required a lot of dedication and tolerance and commitment and as help further develop their individual skills. “We had to focus a lot as a team… and at the end of the day we did our best and that what we really proud of. Our opponent is a good team and there was a possibility of them winning so we left room for reality and we didn’t get too overwhelmed.”
McNeil thanked everyone that voted him top debater and provided insight as to why he was chosen. “Whenever I go on stage, I try to do my best and leave room for my personality and when you are yourself you get good results.”
Last year’s winner said they are ready to go back to the drawing board to prepare for next year’s competition. Captain of the PBC debate team Rhion Charles spoke of the lesson learned during this year’s debate. “My main takeaway is that we need to focus more on the way we present. I feel like our presentation, although it was great, I feel like we could have done more of not reading as much. I also believe that putting more emphasis on certain aspects of the topic would be great because we need to look at it from all different sides. Even though our school is very good at doing that, I still think it would be best to improve to be able to do better next year.”
With more than $150,000 in school and individual education awards, the Grenlec Debates continues to be the flagship of Grenlec’s Community Partnership Initiative.
grenlec debates, community partnership initiative, bishop’s college, presentation brothers’ college, st joseph’s convent, curlan campbell
