By: Alberta Asanewa Dwirah and Naomi Asantewaa Amissah
Tema Senior High School (SHS) has won the inter-school debate organised by Afram Publications Limited in partnership with the Ghana Publishers Association in Accra.
The competition featured four participating schools: Okuapeman Senior High School, Swedru Senior High School, Winneba Senior High School, and Tema Senior High School.
Speaking at the event, Managing Director of Afram Publications Limited, Harriet Adelaide Tagoe stated that the initiative aims at educating students on the impact of galamsey and copyright challenges in the country. As part of activities marking the 22nd Ghana International Book Fair (GIBF), an inter-schools debate has been held featuring four senior high schools.
In the preliminary stage, Swedru SHS faced Winneba SHS on the motion: “The devastating effect of illegal mining (galamsey) on the environment is due to non-implementation of appropriate policies.” Swedru SHS argued against the motion, while Winneba SHS argued in favour.
The second contest saw Tema SHS compete against Okuapeman SHS on the motion: “Indiscipline in schools is a result of deficiencies in the school curriculum.” Do you agree?”
At the end of the preliminaries, Winneba SHS and Tema SHS emerged as winners. They advanced to the final round, where they debated the main topic: “The publishing industry has been adversely affected by the lack of copyright enforcement: Are authors and publishers deserving of copyright protection?”
Tema SHS secured first place with 79.9 points, while Winneba SHS placed second with 72.5 points. The winning team’s participants shared the debate’s positive impact on them and urged their colleagues to also take advantage of such opportunities.
“It has helped boost our confidence level. Because now we can stand in front of a whole congregation and not feel shy, nervous, or scared. So, I think I’m encouraging every student to engage in debate activities. Because it will help them now and in their adult life, we shouldn’t underestimate ourselves. So as students, and people, we shouldn’t underestimate ourselves. And we’ve also learned how to sacrifice and we’ve also learned time management. Because we had to sacrifice certain lessons to be able to do this debate” the students said.
Managing Director of Afram Publications, Limited Harriet Adelaide Tagoe, explained that the debate seeks to capture the perspectives of the student on the fight against galamsey and copyright issues in the country.
“Currently we are facing a lot of issues in terms of galamsey and then copyright challenges. And it is because of that we chose these topics for them to be able to give us what they also think. Because sometimes we assume they are young and so they don’t have ideas. We have listened to quite a number of the things they have brought up” Madam Tagoe emphasized.
The inter schools’ debate, sought to build the communication skills of students while offering them the platform to exchange ideas on critical national and educational issues.
