Debate contest gets university students thinking

By Hyunsook Siutaia 16 September 2020, 3:00AM

The first round of a six-week debate competition at the National University of Samoa (N.U.S.) started on Tuesday. 

The competition is an inter-faculty contest chaired by the University's Literacy Officer, Luagalau Foisaga Shon, and coordinated and organised by the N.U.S.S.A. Executive. 

Luagalau said in her opening speech that the competition is an important annual activity of the university, emphasising that it would help improve the students' presentation skills, debating skills and their confidence. 

"This is an annual activity that is taken seriously and we trust that each faculty, school and centre takes time to seriously prepare for this debate," Luagalau said 

This year marks a first for the university as the whole competition was streamed live and will continue to do so for the next six weeks. 

The first debate of the first round was on the topic, "University students should not consume alcohol" between the Technical, Vocational and Education Training (TVET) on the affirmative side and the Faculty of Technical Education (FOTE) on the negative with TVET taking the win. 

The second debate between the Faculty of Science (FCS) and the  Center of Samoan Studies (CSS) on the topic, "Domestic Violence is a result of Lack of Education" was an interesting session which the FCS won. 

The President of NUSSA, Junior Ofisa said in an interview that the topics of the debate were decided upon by each faculty. 

"The debate was discussed in the NUSSA executive meeting and we decided that the topics will be provided by the faculty lecturers after their discussions," he said 

It was raised by one of the judges, Vui Faapopo Tauaanae raised that the NUSSA reps need a seminar to discuss the protocols of formal debates so they (NUSSA) can inform the debate teams. 

However, Junior said that NUSSA had already informed the teams participating in the competition about the protocols of formal debates even before the competition started. 

The competition will be done in a span of six weeks and all sessions will be live-streamed on the university's Facebook Page. 










By Hyunsook Siutaia 16 September 2020, 3:00AM

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