KONONGO ODUMASE SHS WINS DEBATE (PAGE 11)

Story: Zakaria Alhassan, Tamale

KONONGO Odumase Senior High School in the Ashanti Region emerged winners in the 51st Independence Day Anniversary Debate competition held in Tamale for the northern sector of the country with 96.5 points.
They were followed closely by St Francis Xavier Senior High School from the Upper West Region with 96.0 points, while Sunyani, Gowrie, also from the Upper West, and Nalerigu Senior High schools placed third, fourth and fifth with 95.0, 82.5 and 70.5 points respectively.
The schools were drawn from the Ashanti, Upper West, Brong Ahafo, Northern and Upper East regions. The topic for the day’s debate was ‘‘The Institution of Chieftaincy is Inimical to our National Progress.’’
The highly competitive debate was witnessed by the Northern Regional Director of Education, Mr John K. Hobenu, and some headmasters, tutors and students from the competing schools.  
According to the organiser of the programme, Madam Alice A. Belbaar, the winners from the northern sector would meet their counterparts in the southern sector for the grand finale in March, this year, as part of the independence anniversary.
Madam Belbaar, who is also the Northern Regional Cultural Co-ordinator, described the competition as very educative and one that would help broaden the knowledge and vocabulary of the students, and also enable them to socialise with their colleagues.
Mr Hobenu, for his part, expressed concern over the declining performance of pupils and students in both the BECE and the WASSCE in the northern sector over the years.
‘‘It is quite worrying and frantic efforts are needed to salvage the unfortunate situation English tutors will attest to the fact that the problem is worse with some key subject areas, paramount among which is the English Language,’’ he added.
The director said it was for this reason that such debates should be encouraged to positively influence students to refine their language skills.
‘‘More important, debates help to broaden our knowledge, increase our vocabulary, eloquence and fluency; it arouses our interest in research and increase our quest for more knowledge,’ he stated.
In addition, he said competitors were exposed to the rudiments of competitive skills to enable them build confidence in themselves, which he noted, was a good foundation for academic excellence in their educational pursuits.
‘‘Let us, therefore, with unity of purpose, strive harder than before to achieve this objective,’’ Mr Hobenu implored.