Once again, the Free State Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, through the Library and Archive Services Directorate, has embarked on a programme where learners from the four Free State districts as well as the Metro will be displaying their abilities in research and public speaking. This Debate competition is one of the department’s aims to make a difference in the reading abilities of all children in the Free State Province.
As this is the first time for the department to host an event like this, five libraries, one per district, were identified to participate in the competition. Each of the five libraries was given an opportunity to invite learners who are library users, to participate in the debate competition. A choice of six topics was availed to them, and all were expected to conduct research on the selected topics. They were further expected to create arguments around the topics and display their findings in front of an audience.
Libraries conducted library-based (local) competitions in each district to give each learner a fair chance to show his/her abilities. In this way, some of the learners were eliminated, leaving only the two best learners to participate in the final provincial competition against the other eight learners from the other districts. In total, there will be 10 participants, two per District. The 10 final participants will show-off their debating skills. Each participant will also be expected to answer questions from the audience about their presentations.
During the final Debate competition the winner, as well as the 1st and 2nd runner-ups will be identified by a panel of three judges. Various prizes will be handed to all participating learners.
The competition will take place as follows:
Date: 26 October 2012
Venue: Free State Provincial Archives, 29 Badenhorst Street, Universitas, Bloemfontein
Time: 9h00 until 15h00
Media enquiries
Tankiso Zola
Tel: 051 4104 742/4786/4719
Cell: 082 940 2392
E-mail: tankiso@sacr.fs.gov.za
General enquiries
Raspby Ramugondo
Tel: 051 407 2809
Cell: 073 276 8298
E-mail: nramugondo@sacr.fs.gov.za
Debate competition
Province
