Pragya, Harshita win ‘Great Debate’ at NDA

PATNA:

Notre Dame Academy

(NDA)’s Pragya Priyadashi and St Michael’s High School’s Harshita Sharma were adjudged the best speakers in the junior and senior categories respectively at the interschool Great Debate, organised by the Parent-Teacher Association of NDA on its campus on Monday.

Students of at least 14 city schools participated in the event with class VI to VIII students vying for the honours in the junior category and class IX and X students competing in the senior category.

The topic for the junior category was ‘Childhood loses its innocence due to smartphone’. In this category, the first and second runners-up were NDA’s Harshita Jha and Loyola High School’s Salvi Rani. Abhinav Anand of St Karen’s High School and Tripti Agarwal of Delhi Public School were adjudged promising speakers in this category.

In the senior category, Yash Raj of Infant Jesus School was declared the first runner-up and Sanidhya Sinha of St Karen’s High School the second runner-up. The two awards for promising speakers in this category went to Nishant Kumar of St Karen’s High School and Mansi Jha of NDA.

The senior students debated the topic ‘Only meritorious students make it to competitions in schools’.

St Karen’s High School’s Nishant said that the development of the nation was possible only when every student got equal opportunities in school. “Favouritism by teachers will adversely affect the self-confidence of neglected students,” he said and quoted famous leaders to bring home his point.

NDA’s Pragya won applause from the audience as she, in response to a question from a participant, said that the mobile phone should be considered like a weapon by the parents. “Giving your child a smartphone is like giving him/her a knife which may prove dangerous,” she added.

The contest was judged by Mamta Mehrotra and Rashmi Ravija. The topics were announced on the spot and students were given time to prepare their response. The debate was conducted in Hindi.

Congratulating the winners, host school principal Sr Mary Jesy said the Great Debate “provides a platform to children to express their thoughts without fear and, thus, enhance their creativity and thinking capabilities”.

PTA president Subroto Jha, media coordinator Parvez Ahmed and members Manoj Kumar Sinha and Dr Jitendra along with PTA secretary Manisha Gupta were also present at the event.