XIX Revd. Dr. Slater English Debates 2014

Finals

Bishop Cotton School wins XIX Revd. Slater English debates 2014 

Participating Teams:

1. La Martiniere Girls,   Lucknow
2. La Martiniere Boys College, Lucknow
3. Mayo College, Ajmer
4. MayoCollege for Girls’
5. The Doon School, Dehradun
6. St.JamesSchool, Kolkata
7. Auckland House School, Shimla
8. The SriRamSchool, Gurgaon
9. Vasant Valley School, New Delhi
10. The Aitchison College, Lahore
11. Bishop Cotton, Shimla-Cambridge
12. Sherwood School, Nanital
13. Loreto School, Kolkata
14. The Assam Valley School, Assam
15. The LawrenceSchool, Sanawar.
16. Bishop Cotton School, Shimla – Oxford

On 26^th April Saturday , Bishop Cotton School won Slater Debates 2014, Yashvardhan Singh of Bishop Cotton School was adjudged the best speaker of Slater Debates-2014. Ved Mehta, of St. James’ was awarded the Best Speaker in the first semi-final as St. James’ School, Kolkata managed to defeat Loreto House Kolkata with the topic reading “It is time to end caste-based reservations in India in order to bring about social equality”. The second semi-final featured hosts Bishop Cotton squaring off with international participants Aitchison College, Lahore. . The topic for the debate was “Corruption Is the Price We Pay for Progress”. The fourth speakers of the teams were called upon as the debate was adjudged as a tie. Bishop Cotton ultimately emerged victorious after a keenly contested tie-breaker with Yashvardhan Singh of Bishop Cotton being adjudged the Best Speaker.

In the evening, the much anticipated final debate was held between the hosts Bishop Cotton and St. James’ Kolkata with the topic being “During elections, image building makes a mockery of Indian democracy”. The Chief Guest for the evening was Mr. Deepak Sanan, a very senior bureaucrat presently working as additional chief secretary in the Government of Himachal Pradesh. He is an eminent personality, a writer, and writes for various column and almost all newspaper.

The opposition side Bishop Cotton managed to get the title under their belt as Yashvardhan Singh and Ankit Gongal of Bishop Cotton bagged the Best Speaker award while Ved Mehta of St. James’ managed the 3^rd position.

The individual prizes were as follows:

• Courage in the face of Adversity: Syed Rafay Hassan (Aitchison College, Lahore)
• The Most Promising Speaker: Ved Mehta (St. James’ School, Calcutta)
• The Best Speaker of Slater Debates: Yashvardhan Singh (Bishop Cotton School, Shimla)

The 19^th edition of the famous Revd. Dr. Samuel Slater Memorial Invitational Inter-School English Debates was won by the hosts Bishop Cotton School, Shimla for the second consecutive year. The debating event which lasted for a period of five days was successful in strengthening bonds between elite schools from across the country as well as maintaining the highest standards of total education.

The whole program was conceptualised and planned by the Master Incharge debates Mrs Sushma Kaul under the dynamic leadership of The Headmaster Mr. R. C. Robinson.