TeamUSA Takes on the World: The History of the World Schools Debating Championships

SEOUL, Korea – What is the history and background of the World Schools Debating Championships? This international debate tournament has its roots in a 1988 meet in Canada between teams from Australia, Canada, England, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and the United States. The tournament today hosts many teams from many countries, including a large number of debaters whose first language is not English. In many ways, it resembles the international championship held in collegiate parliamentary debate.

The full history of the tournament can be found here on VBD, with a summary from the WSDC itself.

From the 2007 World Schools Debating Championships web site:

—
The World Schools Debating Championships have their genesis in Australia’s bicentennial year. Members of the Australian Debating Federation were aware that the world universities competition was coming to Sydney in January 1988. There was no similar event for secondary school pupils, yet the world universities championships showed the enormous potential for an international debating competition involving students from all around the world. The universities competition had only been initiated seven years earlier in Glasgow, but had proved highly successful and had rapidly expanded into a major international event. The Australian Debating Federation had long organised a national schools debating competition and determined to organise an international school championships in which the Australian team could compete against representatives from other countries.

And so “the Bicentennial International School Students Debating Championships” were born. Chris Erskine took on the task of organising the event for August 1988. Whereas every university was able to send two teams to the world universities competition, practicalities required the international school championships be restricted to one team from each country. New Zealand was spurred to establish its own championships in order to select a truly national team and, over the years, participation in the world schools competition has led many other countries to do the same.

Teams from Australia, Canada, England, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the United States contested the first Championships. The final was held in the debating chamber of Australia’s old Parliament House and, beginning a worlds tradition, was won by a single ballot majority. The close-knit camaraderie and contagious enthusiasm engendered by the first Worlds was evidenced by the fact that 6 of the 9 adults coaching teams in 1988 have remained involved with the world schools competition to this day (Chris Erskine from Australia, John Baty from Canada, David Bussey from England, Rosemary Dixon and Andrew Stockley from New Zealand, and Sue Wenzlaff from the United States); 5 of the 9 convened one of the later Championships.
1990: Canada
The success of the 1988 event saw Canada offer to host a second Championships in 1990. 7 teams competed in the 1990 Championships, Hong Kong not taking part on this occasion, but Israel and Scotland competing for the first time. The latter won the final, held at the Winnipeg City Hall, on a 5-4 decision.

Limited preparation debating had been introduced into the preliminary rounds, there just being two prepared topics, for which the teams had to debate both sides. The first set of rules for the World Schools Debating Council were drawn up and agreed.
1991-4: Scotland, England, Canada, New Zealand
Called “the World Debating Championships” in Winnipeg, the competition has been titled “the World Schools Debating Championships” since 1991. The number of countries competing effectively doubled from 1988-90 to 1991-4. The competition now levelled out at 12 to 13 teams, with new countries represented being Bangladesh, Belgium, Bermuda, the Cook Islands, Germany, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Peru, Singapore, South Africa, and Wales. A few of these attended just a single tournament; some returned several years later; others have participated since their first appearance. Quarterfinals were introduced to reflect the larger numbers.

There are different highlights for each of the tournaments from 1991 to 1994. There were “away days” to Aberdeen and Cambridge. The first two days of the 1994 competition were spent in Auckland, before everyone was flown down to Wellington. Teams continued to be billeted (the only exceptions being the first parts of the tournaments in 1988 and 1994), but the relatively small size of Worlds at this time meant that there was an immediate intimacy to the competition, with everyone getting to know each other extremely fast. Heavy snowfall blanketed Edinburgh the night of the Grand Final in 1991, to the consternation of at least one finalist team which, as the scheduled start time neared, found it impossible to obtain a taxi. Fortunately everyone was delayed for the same reason! Like Winnipeg, Medicine Hat exposed teams to the rigours of the Canadian winter. Many of the debates at the 1993 tournament were shown on local television and particular emphasis was placed upon the event being a forum for future world leaders. Memories from 1994 include the visit to a Maori marae, receptions with the New Zealand Governor-General and Prime Minister, and Pakistan making the Grand Final at Parliament (the first finalist not from Britain/ North America/ Australasia).
1995-7: Wales, Australia, Bermuda
The number of countries participating ranged from 15 to 19 during the next three years. France, Italy and Spain made brief appearances. Argentina, and the Eastern European countries of the Czech Republic, Latvia and Lithuania joined the Championships from this period onwards. The first world schools adjudicators’ guide appeared and a standardised marking schedule was agreed and adopted.

In 1995 there were memorable visits to St Donat’s Castle, the Tower Colliery and the Brecon Beacons national park. That year’s Grand Final, in St David’s Hall in Cardiff, was the first to attract an audience of over a thousand. Equally impressive were the 1996 Grand Final in the Great Hall of the new Australian Parliament Buildings, and the 1997 final in Bermuda, chaired by the Premier, with the prizes presented by the Governor, and broadcast live on local television. Bermuda was also notable for the scale of the parties and opportunities for socialising arranged. Such features are now expected to be part of any Worlds.
1998-2002: Israel, England, United States, South Africa, Singapore
The number of countries again rose significantly, 25 attending in 1998, 31 in 1999, 27 in 2000, 33 in 2001 and 28 in 2002. South Africa rapidly improved its ranking during this period, reaching the semi-finals in 2001. Namibia and Zimbabwe attended when the Championships were held in Johannesburg. The number of central and eastern European countries continued to grow. Belarus, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine competed for the first time during this period, of which Estonia, Slovakia and Slovenia have attended every Championships since. The same can be said of Brunei and Greece, while Finland, Indonesia, Kuwait, the Philippines and Portugal all made their first appearances.

The pattern became established during this period of there being four prepared motions for the preliminary rounds (as opposed to two prepared motions and teams having to debate both sides, which had been more common in the past). The Beit Shmuel guesthouse was used in 1998. The Hammersmith Novotel, the Ramada in Pittsburgh, the Rosebank Hotel in Johannesburg and the Concorde Hotel in Singapore have similarly become important parts of subsequent tournaments. Expanded competitions and paying for accommodation have necessitated registration fees since 1998. More teams led to the introduction of octofinal rounds.

The most recent Worlds have their own highlights. Threats made against Israel and the issuing of gas masks to the general population during the 1998 Championships brought home some of the daily realities faced in that part of the world. Visits to the Old City, Bethlehem, Masada, the Dead Sea, Yad Vashem and the Knesset must rank among the most memorable of any Worlds. Visiting Cambridge, touring the British Parliament and seeing the Speaker of the House of Commons, Princess Anne, and the wife of the British Prime Minister (Cherie Booth) at some of the receptions and events will be remembered by competitors in London in 1999. The hospitality of Duquesne University and day trips to Erie and Cleveland stand out when looking back at the 2000 Worlds in Pittsburgh. The incredible experience of visiting Soweto, and being welcomed with song and dance at different schools in South Africa, remain as indelible highlights of a remarkable and awe-inspiring two weeks in Johannesburg. The Grand Final in Singapore was held in front of over 1500 people. The lion dances in the various schools, the Punjabi dancers at the Asia Night, and the competitors’ dancing at the Hard Rock Cafe typify one of the most well organised, spectacular, yet still friendly World Championships.

2004, 2005: Germany, Canada
Korea made its first appearance to the WSDC in Stuttgart in February, 2004. In February 2005, Calgary, Alberta, Canada hosted the 2005 ConocoPhillips World Schools Debating Championships. The Calgary event was one of the largest events in World Schools Debate history. 10,000 local students participated through the 40 schools that hosted debates. Over 1,000 individuals attended the grand final debate, hosted in the Hyatt Regency Calgary Grand Ballroom. For the first time ever, debates also took place on First Nations lands with local Aboriginal students participating in an exhibition debate with the best of Calgary’s high school debaters.

2006: Wales
The 2006 WSDC was the largest WSDC to date, with 36 countries in attendance. The Korean National High School Debate Team made history by reaching the Quarterfinals of the 2006 World Schools Debate Championship (WSDC) held in Cardiff, Wales. It was the first time that Team Korea had achieved this elite position as one of the top 8 English-language debating nations in the world, and Team Korea was the only English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) nation to reach the Quarterfinal round. Team Korea was awarded the EFL Award as the top EFL nation at the World Championship, and one of the Korean debaters, Im Seo Hee, received the award as the No.1 EFL Speaker in the world.

Popularity: 1% [?]

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 5th, 2007 at 10:58 am and is filed under World Championships 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.