“You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic.”

Debate is one of the academic activities that give students creative room to express what they feel. The length and breadth of knowledge that they gain through this is simply un-paralleled. With the same perspective in view, the Inter- School Debate Competition, under the nomenclature EDUMEET 2019 was organized by Indian Muslim Welfare Association (IMWA) at SIMS Salmiyah on May 03. The chosen topic of this year’s debate was – “Is our current education system preparing our children for a better future”.

The programme opened with recitation of Holy Quran by Ms. Saima, daughter of Mr. Samiullah Bandarkar of Class VIII. She recited the last two verses from Sura Baqra along with its translation. The mantle of compering was taken up by a first and second timer, - Master(s) of Ceremony, - Ayan Mohammad of Class X and Mohammad Sadiq of Class XII respectively under the guidance of Ms. Israa Naeem. As per the feedback of the audience, they made a great presentation and did a fantastic job.

The EDUMEET program of IMWA was divided in two segments, the essay writing and the debate competition. While, the kids were busy writing essay, the audience comprising mainly parents, debate judges, debate participants and families of IMWA office bearers were enlightened by a motivational speech by Ms. Sandra Stein on Topic: “Embrace the Failure.” Mrs. Sandra is M.Ed. TOESL, Sr. Instructor, IEP at AUK. Sandra has been an educator for 30 years. Her main focus has been on curriculum development and project - based learning. She was Director of the IEP, AUK from 2014- 2017.

The students for essay writing were divided in three groups. The subjects for the essay captured wide imagination of students. The essay topics for Group A, Class (7 and 8) was – A day without parents, whereas for students of Group B, (Class 9 and 10), it was, Are Tuitions really necessary. For seniors, Group C, (Class 11 and 12), the essay topic was – My vision for India. In Group A, Maryam Jameelah of SIMS was the winner whereas Ashwile Biju Pani Kuleem of ICSK, was the Runners up. In Group B, Sabah Faez Faisal of ICS, Amman Branch was adjudged winner with Angela Gracelyn Smith of ICSK in the second place. In Group C, Ayesha Wafiya of ICSK was declared winner and Irene Sara Jacob of ICSK, grabbed the second position.

IMWA expresses its gratitude and is thankful to the following teachers Mr. Sajan Sudev, Mrs. Pushapajaa M.P. and Mrs. Pushpalatha Subramaniam, (Indian Educational School) ; Mrs. Ambika Shivaprasad and Ms. Helen Selina (Indian Community School – Khaitan) and Mrs. Humera Baba – (SIMS) for having spared their valuable time. IMWA values and appreciates the painstaking efforts of these teachers in going through approximately 100 essays written by a cross section of students from Class 7 to 12, then choosing out the best amongst them in a short duration of three hours.

For debate, there were 09 teams of debaters from eight Indian schools in Kuwait and a home team of IMWA. Eighteen speakers, vied for honours with each team consisting of two members, for and against the motion. A slot of 5 minutes (3+1+1 minute) was allotted to each member. The participating teams represented their respective schools namely, (1) ICSK Khaitan (2) SIMS (3) India International School (4) Gulf Indian School (5) Don Bosco (6) ICSK Amman (7) Carmel School (8) IES, Bhavans (9) IMWA.

The teams were well prepared, while arguing for the motion or against - they used various skills like overstatement, definition, rhetoric, irony etc. to convince the audience. The participants, armed with statistics and data validated and made their arguments more emphatic with right facial expressions, body movements and gestures.

At the end of the heated but interesting debate which lasted over three hours, finally, Indian Educational School was declared the winner. IES was represented by Liana Maria James and Joel M. George. Liana Maria James bagged the Best Speaker Award followed by Ayisha Wafiath of ICSK, Khaitan, as 1st Runner UP and Efrem Joseph Charles of ICSK, Amman as 2nd Runner UP.

The Jury team comprised of four judges, (1) - Dr. Navnit Gandhi, who is a feature writer and author. She has nearly 250 publications on various socio economic problems.

(2) - Mrs. Rana Khan holds a Master of Arts degree in English Literature in addition to a Master in Business Administration. She also holds a teacher’s certificate in CELTA and IELTS TTT (Train the Trainer) program from British Council. Currently, she is a doctoral student in Education at University of Bath, UK. She has extensive teaching experience from various schools and colleges besides active industrial experience at various management positions.

(3) - Dr. Moli Divakaran is an educationist with 25 years of teaching experience in India, Canada and Middle East. Currently she is Lecturer at Box Hill College of Kuwait.

(4) - Mr. Anil Lobo is an active Toastmaster, having mentored several adults and youth on the skills of communication.

IMWA President, Jawaid Anwar welcomed the audience and requested to deliberate to have an Education System which produces not only skilled work force, but human beings, who are just , tolerant ,caring, indiscriminate, full of human values and moral principles. He highlighted the relentless effort done by the convener, Mohammed Khalid, and co-conveners Firdaus Khan and Mohammad Asif, editor of the souvenir, Irfan Mohammad Khan ,moderator, Mohammad Zahid Anwar and other EC members, sponsors, volunteers and the Judges. Mr. Irfan Karim, the President of FIMA also graced the occasion by his presence.

That which added feathers to the programme was the surprise attendance of Mr. K.K. Gangadhar, the Principal of ICS, Khaitan. The IMWA fraternity is very thankful to this gesture of the Principal and the nice and encouraging observations that he made in his speech.