By Eunice Hilda A. Mensah
Accra, July 08, GNA – The Galaxy International School has emerged the second best in the just ended Pan-African Schools Debate held in South Africa, among 60 teams from six African countries.
The Ghana-based School, after grabbing the second position medal, also took away the “Best Speakers” honour in the debating and public speaking contest, among the other teams from Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, and the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville).
Mr Emmanuel Boakye-Yiadom, the Speech and Debate Facilitator, Galaxy International School, said talents development was one of the school’s policies, hence the constant support to register their students for international competitions.
“In Galaxy, we truly nurture talents and it is a part of our policy. So apart from education, we ensure that our students have extra-curricular activities to develop their talents as we build on them,” he said.
The experiences gathered at the competition, he said, would be used to help the students at Galaxy and beyond to sharpen their debating and public speaking skills in the country.
Mr Boakye-Yiadom, also a teacher in the School, said although their students grabbed the second position out of the 10 finalists, he realised that the Southern Africa debate teams had a more structured formidable team, something Ghana should learn from.
He explained that they saw debating as a game and so had huge investments for it with full time coaches.
He, therefore, called on the Sports and Education Ministries to start thinking around inter-schools’ debating as a sports competition that needed investment and attention.
That, he said, could put Ghana higher on the global map and build the confidence of her students.
Mr Boakye-Yiadom said they seized the opportunity to take students on a tour to observe interesting activities and places in South Africa like Mud run, the Kempton Park, Sandton City (the richest neighbourhood in Africa) and Soweto.
Husinah Bint Saeed, a year 11 student at Galaxy International School, who took part in the contest, said: “The questions were quite tricky. They gave us the question on the day of the debate and we had only one hour to prepare. There were some ups and downs but in all, we made it to the finals and afterwards we were able to win the second position.
“Some of the questions were on monetisation, the operations and culture of other countries, and whether people should post on social media to get money. You just don’t know the question coming, they could just throw any question at you and give you an hour to prepare. When you are preparing, you are not allowed to use the Internet. It is just you and your brain.”
Muhsinah Bint Saeed, another year 11 contestant, told the Ghana News Agency: “Honestly, I feel like it was challenging and it forced us to come out of our comfort zone to do what we thought we couldn’t do and God being so good, we came out as second.”
Kauthara Ndeiya Ramadan, a year 10 contestant said: “It was a very nice competiticn, we met new people and made friends and it helped us to improve on our debating skills.
Mr Hakan Tokdemir, the Vice Principal, Galaxy International School, congratulated the students and all other Galaxy students who had taken part in international competitions like the OWLYPIA Global Intellectual Challenge competition held in Cambridge, England., describing them as ‘gifted’ and ‘talented’.
“At Galaxy, we encouraged students to come out and explore their talents and skills. We also encourage them to be more creative and confident.
“We feel very proud, knowing that the flag of Ghana is rising higher through the hands of our students. Whenever there is an opportunity, we try to give them the necessary support and equipment to enable them to participate in such contests,” he noted.
GNA