Chennai-based Indian Schools Debating Society (ISDS) has made the nation proud by winning silver at the World Schools Debating Championships 2018 held at Zagreb, Croatia. The Indian contingent, consisting five debaters from across India, including three students from PSBB School in KK Nagar, have returned to the country to a rousing welcome for achieving India’s best-ever rank at the tournament.

Saranya Ravindran, Tejas Subramaniam, Dhananjay Ashok, Manya Gupta and Hemanth Chakravarthy

Chennai:

Over 600 students from 64 countries took part in the competition, and team India lost by a narrow margin to winners China. But, the team redeemed itself after one of the members Dhananjay Ashok (from The International School, Bengaluru) was announced the best speaker of the tournament.

 

Speaking to the press, the team of Dhananjay Ashok, Manya Gupta and the Chennai trio of Hemanth Chakravarthy, Tejas Subramaniam and Saranya Ravindran were in high spirits. The coaches Sayeqa Islam, Dhruva Bhat and Amrithavarshini Venkatesh were also part of the interaction.

“In many other countries, debating societies are actually funded by the government and are part of the school curriculum. India doesn’t have such facilities, so we had to work really hard to make it to this level,” said Dhananjay.

“A lot of preparation and research went towards understanding how other teams such as England and Canada structured their speeches, and we have now emerged as a powerhouse in the field,” he said.

 

Hemanth added that despite the team members being from different cities, over 1,000 hours of preparation went into their rigorous regime of watching videos and practicing with each other online. “A lot of teamwork is involved, and we are one big family of sorts,” said Hemanth. They also thanked the alumni members of ISDS who are all involved in the training process of young members to the society.

Pradeep Yadav, IAS, principal secretary to government, who was the chief guest at the event, also congratulated the parents for giving space to the children to pursue their passion, and requested the ISDS to also work towards developing a culture of debating in the language of Tamil, as he felt it would aid in the development of students who speak in regional languages.