Six teams of secondary schools students discussed current social and political topics on the premises of the Parliament of the Czech Republic
On Monday 18 June final debating duels took place in the State Acts of the Czech Parliament among six student teams who won regional rounds of the debating competition Student Agora. Students discussed among others privatization of ČEZ, reintroduction of progressive taxes, admission of Serbia to the European Union or international boycott of the ice-hockey world championship in Belarus. This year again, the final round took place under the auspices of the chairwoman of the Chamber of Deputies Ms. Miroslava Němcová.
The aim of Student Agora is to encourage students’ interest in public space and to teach them to critically think about current social topics. The aim is successfully achieved through a specific format of the debates: students draw lots just before the debate to know whether they will defend or deny a given statement, e.g. „The state-owned part of ČEZ should be sold“. Therefore, they must prepare arguments both for and against the statement. Every debating duel consists of three short debates (5 – 7 min.) on three different topics. Students have to study a relatively big set of resources about approx. 20 current social and political topics, but at the same time they have to be able to transform the information gathered into short, understandable and pertinent arguments.
The winning team of this year of Student Agora comes from 'Biskupské gymnázium Bohuslava Balbína' in Hradec Králové.
Student Agora has been organized by Agora CE, a public profit company, since 2004. From its start, Student Agora supported over 4,500 students and helped them develop key skills still rather neglected by the Czech educational system: to work with information, to formulate one’s opinion and to present it in public. To know more about Student Agora, have a look at www.agora-ce.cz/studentska-agora or www.facebook.com/studentskaagora.
Student Agora is a non-profit project whose existence depends on support from public and private resources. For information about how to support Student Agora, please contact Eliška Chomátová, coordinator of the project, by email eliska.chomatova@agorace.cz or by phone +420 608 333 914.
