Primary and secondary school pupils who took part in this year’s Trust for Sustainable Living (TSL) International essay, TSL National and International Debate Competitions were recently rewarded in a small ceremony held at the Seychelles Institute for Teacher Education, Mont Fleuri.
The theme for this year was; ‘How would addressing inequality help to combat the climate crisis’. An essay competition was launched in 2022 for primary and secondary pupils from across the world, including from Seychelles, and our country performed well for both categories which automatically qualified them for the International Debate Competition.
TSL is an international organisation that promotes sustainable development goals and believes strongly that this can be achieved through education.
Every year TSL launches international competitions to encourage students to express their views on sustainability issues and ways to improve the problems identified.
The competitions gathered momentum in Seychelles and many schools took part in both essay and debate competitions.
The Best Overall Group for the Primary category went to the ‘Gender Inequality Group’ which was composed of Vierrah Hoareau from Anse Aux Pins, Elaine Delcy from Baie Ste Anne, Tonia Amade from Grand Anse Mahé and Avantika Dutt from International School Seychelles.
Pupils who demonstrated outstanding individual attributes during the debates were also rewarded. For Best Understanding, the prize went to Nelson Charles from Mont Fleuri primary school; for Best Contribution to debate, the prize went to Mitch Loizeau from Baie Lazare primary school and the Top Best Individual Presentation prize went to Avantika Dutt from International School Seychelles.
For the TSL National Secondary Debate, the theme was ‘Addressing inequality will NOT solve the climate crisis’. Students were placed in groups where they had to conduct a presentation and decided how best to allocate the varying roles across the team members (e.g. opening arguments, rebuttals, responses, closing arguments, or six general support). The groups were either ‘Pros’ or ‘Cons’.
For the Best Overall Group the prize went to Pro 2 group composed of Ahmed Awad Allah from Beau Vallon, Lydianne Anacoura from Anse Boileau and Cliven Azemia from English River.
For Best Understanding the prize went to Tyra Tangalam from Pointe Larue; For Best Contribution to Debate the prize went to Ruhi Sree Pandu Rangan from Independent School and the Top Best Individual Presentation prize went to Vanshika Parikh from International School Seychelles.
There were also honourable mentions for the primary schools: Elaine Delcy from Baie Ste Anne; Ahmed Awad Allah from Beau Vallon; Anila Gonthier from Beau Vallon; Jayidan Hoarau from Mont Fleuri; Elaine Delcy from Baie Ste Anne; Anila Gonthier from Beau Vallon and Jayidan Hoarau from Mont Fleuri.
Two finalists – Avantika Dutt from International School Seychelles and Nelson Charles from Mont Fleuri primary, were qualified to represent Seychelles in the TSL International Online Debate Competition based on their results.
For the secondary category the honourable mentions went to: Lydiane Anacoura from Anse Boileau, Vanshika Parikh and Shruti Sujith from International School Seychelles, Yuginie Aglae from Plaisance, Anush Kumar Velmurugan and Joshua Peter Allcorn from International School Seychelles, Adelle Bristol and Jassim Surman from Belonie, Karin Samedi from Plaisance, Cliven Azemia and Lara Seraphine from English River.
Based on the marks awarded, Cliven and Karin were chosen to represent Seychelles in the TSL International Online Debate Competition.
Since last year the TSL founder has encouraged countries around the world to hold National TSL Debates with the aim of having more students explore the theme and prepare the debaters for the International Debate. Using the guidelines from TSL, the Education for Sustainable Development Section invited other partners to assist in organising this event.
ICS, SPGA, SIYAH Seychelles, SITE, Parley Seychelles, Ambassador Marie-Pierre Lloyd, the Blue Economy department and the department of Climate Change assisted the Ministry of Education to organise the TSL National Debate which was held on June 27 for primary schools and June 28 for secondary schools via the zoom platform.
For the Primary category, pupils were placed in thematic groups: Gender Inequality, Indigenous Inequality, Racial Inequality, Educational Inequality, Financial/Social Inequality and Youth/Intergenerational Inequality where they had to prepare a group presentation based on the theme in relevance to their thematic group.
Judges went round in the groups and also asked the teams questions to test their understanding and team work.
The event was attended by the Minister for Education, Dr Justin Valentin; Ambassador Marie-Pierre Lloyd and other high officials from different ministries.
Source: Seychelles Nation
