Five students will represent Papua New Guinea for the first time in the World Schools Debate Championship in Zagreb, Croatia, from June 17-27. Chosen from the Emstret School Challenge within National Capital District, the students, aged 15 to 19, travelled at the weekend to Europe with their coaches where they will face Hungary in the first debate round. The group is led by Sabina Buskens from Kopkop College, Christopher Nakue from Don Bosco School, Vibhu Guru of Port Moresby International and John Raka from Kilakila Secondary. “We will be competing against 6 or 7 seven countries and about 600 students around the world,” says Vani Nades, founder of the Emstret Challenge. The World Schools Debate Championship, which attracts high school students from around the world, is the biggest and one of the most prestigious debate championships in the world. PNG’s participation in the WSDC is the first in the Pacific and the country and the students chosen under the Emstret challenge are determined to prove their worth after two weeks of intense coaching on research and speech preparation. “So going forward, we are grounded and we got firm feet to go up and make sure we make a mark for PNG … we have a long way to travel but during our travel we will do a lot of practising,” says coach Mary Handen. The trip to Europe is a first for the team who said they couldn’t find enough words to describe how excited they were. Eighteen-year-old Sabina Buskens says team work was important. “We learnt that team work is important and we are a group of kids with a lot of personalities and we are going to show them that Papua New Guinea has lot of intellectual kids.” Vihbu, 15 says: “I’m a little worried about the debate because we don’t know who were going up against yet but I’m excited to go to Croatia, because you know its Croatia.” Michael Sarevellahr, 18, says he expects a “mind-blowing, crazy experience” and is prepared for the challenge in Croatia, adding that it was an honor to represent the country. Education Secretary Dr Uke Kombra conveyed the education minister’s support and told the students to make PNG proud. Topics in the tournaments range from the impact of advances in crypto-currency remote-controlled weaponry and the separation of business operations and editorial content in journalism. Post Courier/PNGfacts Comments are closed.
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