Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir, on Thursday morning launched the Regional Speaker’s Youth Debating Competition. Most of the competitions will be held virtually.
While all ten administrative regions are expected to participate, Georgetown will participate as a separate district and named District 11 and Region 4 as an independent entity. There will be forty-eight youth groups emerging from the eleven regional groups.
Youths will be asked to generate the ideas that they wish to debate, however, some topics that have been proposed are – separation of powers in Guyana, multi-party democracy is the best form of governance, Guyana should remain independent, Carbon credits markets will not last, public service rules are archaic, the 40 hour work week is ludicrous, poverty is a mindset, hinterland regions are incapable of offering job opportunities, tourism will be our biggest industry, alternative energy is too expensive to survive, technology is stifling children’s cognitive capacity, corporal punishment should be banned, and our educational system indoctrinates not educates.
The competition is expected to provide information on the social, economic and political issues that are affecting youths across Guyana. The objective of the programme is to bring parliament closer to citizens with a focus on the youth population and how to stimulate their participation in national activities, make a career of service to the nation, while enlightening the public on current events in parliament. The programme is also expected to particularly benefit the Grades 5 and 6 pupils. The regional parliamentary debating competition was inaugurated two years ago, initially comprising 16 participating groups from different regions across the country.
