This January, Bruno Barcak, Edwin Cheah, Sam Poder, Arsh Shrivastava, and Neer Vikas Verma have proudly represented XCL World Academy Singapore in the annual Singapore Debate Association Championship. Our team had qualified for the Grand Final and placed second overall in the Silver Division.

Our team participated in heated discussions on various topics ranging from feminism to Singapore politics. These were very tough debates, but our team has managed to win two out of three rounds. It all came down to who would break into the finals.

In a nail-biting announcement, the XCL World Academy team was thrilled to hear that they had come second overall and would be moving onto the finals. This was our first time reaching the finals in a Singapore Debate competition.

After getting some desperately needed sleep, the XCL World Academy team was up bright and early to debate Tanglin Trust in the quarter-finals. It was a challenging debate with multiple clashes. XCL World Academy team was able to win the majority of those clashes and took the debate. In the semi- finals, our team was up against a powerful team from SAS. Once again, the XCL World Academy team won the debate and qualified for the grand finals! In the grand finals, the XCL World Academy team competed against Hua Yi Secondary School’s team, last year’s champions, over the motion that “In nascent democracies, this house would implement a majoritarian voting system over a proportional representation system.” The two teams presented extensive cases for their side.

The teams were on the edge of their seats as the results were read; it was a Hua Yi victory.

Whilst we were naturally disappointed with the final decision, our team left the tournament with pride, having reached a level never before achieved by the school’s relatively young debate team.

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By Sam Poder (Grade 10 student)