HKFYG Leadership Institute’s Annual Chamber Debate elevates students’ social awareness and hones their collaboration and communication skills
Last month, The HKFYG Leadership Institute held the Annual Chamber Debate (Community Event), which is supported by the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) and funded by the Language Fund. This competition, aimed at senior secondary school students, enables them to increase their social awareness through research and debate on global issues. The process of debate also strengthens their ability to consider issues from diverse perspectives, and improves their public speaking, critical thinking, attentive listening and persuasive argument skills.
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During the competition, held in a converted former courtroom, there was a very palpable sense of youthful energy and enthusiasm, as the debate teams captivated the audience and judges with their impassioned persuasion and powerful arguments.
The participants underwent five sessions of intensive training spanning four weeks. During the time, they were able to improve their analytical and structured reasoning abilities as well as polishing their delivery.
Ms Alice Lui Wai-lin, the Deputy Executive Director of the HKFYG, was very impressed by all the teams. “Not only did they show off their skills to perfection, but they were also able to fully argue either for or against very topical global issues, including sustainability, employment and digital transformation.” Addressing the young debaters directly, Ms Lui praised them for their efforts and encouraged them to see this experience as building up skills to pursue their dreams.
The Guest of Honour, the Honourable Joephy Chan Wing-yan, Member, Legislative Council (LegCo), HKSAR, also praised the participants and shared her own experiences as a debater. “I debate regularly in LegCo and have spoken at meetings of the United Nations Human Rights Council”, she told her enthralled audience, “and I hope my political career can serve as an inspiration to you.” Ms Chan also reminded them that, “by understanding issues from different perspectives, you will improve your ability to reach consensus with others and also learn how to negotiate – needed skills for any future career.”
The Annual Chamber Debate was the culmination of the Chamber Debate Club, an immersive debating training programme. The Club is organised by the HKFYG Leadership Institute, housed in the revitalised former Fanling Magistracy. The main purpose is to help young people communicate better in everyday life, and learn how the power of speech can make a positive impact. During April and May, the participants received online theme-based professional guidance from world-class debaters. They were able to get a better understanding on how debates were relevant to their lives, as they also studied different argumentative methods, rhetorical devices/styles and the art of persuasion. The participants were then put into groups to learn to research and prepare their arguments for the theme-based debates on a range of global issues. The Club adopted the World Schools Style Debating format, which was applied to World Schools Debating Championship (WSDC).
