26 August 2015
42nd Platinum Jubilee Memorial Inter- School English Debate was hosted by The Scindia School from 20th to 22nd August, 2015. The teams which participated in the event were Vasant Valley School, Delhi, Genesis Global, Noida, Mayo College, Ajmer, Maharani Gayatri Devi, Jaipur, Welham Girls, Dehradun, Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya, Mother's International, Delhi, Step by Step Jaishree Perival High School, Jaipur and The Scindia School. The debate was held in three rounds. Each team comprised of three members. The speakers in all the rounds were judged on the basis of their arguments, presentation of arguments and language skills. They were also judged on their persuasion skills, ability to deliver on both sides of the motion apart from their style of delivery. The first round was the Turncoat round (the Ranking Round). Each member spoke a turncoat debate for 4 minutes (2 minutes for the motion and 2 minutes against the motion). Akash Jaini and Pallavi Sethi were adjudged the best speakers from Pool A and B respectively. The Preliminary round was conducted in the Parliamentary Format. Kamya Yadav and Akash Jaini were adjudged best speakers in Pool A and Pool B respectively in the preliminary round. Vasant Valley School, Delhi, The Scindia School, Maharani Gayatri Devi, Jaipur and Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya, Gwalior qualified for the semi-finals. On 21st August 2015 after lunch the teams were given time to further formulate their strategies for the debate and then the teams were asked to proceed towards the Assembly Hall for the semi-final round in the evening. The chairperson for the event was Abhishek Garg. The semi-final round was conducted in the Parliamentary Format and the two qualifying teams from each pool competed against each other. A set of motions was put forth before the teams, which was given an hour prior to the debate. Kamya Yadav and Yashaswani Shekhawat were adjudged the best speakers in the semi-final round. Vasant Valley School, Delhi and Maharani Gayatri Devi, Jaipur qualified for the Final Round. The topic was `Girls have it better than boys’. It was argued strongly and their oratory skills were highly appreciated by the audience. The judges for the event were Mr Ayush Tandon, Miss Akshata Limaye, Miss Sulekha Agarwal and Mr Shamik Chakravarty. Maharani Gayatri Devi, Jaipur came first whereas Vasant Valley School, Delhi came second. Kamya Yadav was adjudged the best speaker and Yashaswani Shekhawat was adjudged the second best speaker in the final round. The Senior School Prefect, Arindam Bhardwaj gave the vote of thanks. A special award was given to Abhishek Garg and Shantanu Kulshrestha for their selfless dedication and contribution to the event. The Chairperson, General Syed Ata Hasnain congratulated Abhishek Garg for being a perfect Master of Ceremony who did his work with utmost perfection.