12th NDF BD National Debate Festival’19 held

National Debate Federation Bangladesh (NDF BD) hosted their 12th NDF BD National Debate Festival'19 last month, at the Bangladesh Shishu Academy, Dhaka.

The two-day event was presided over by A K M Shoab, Chairperson, NDF BD, and moderated by Abir Kalam Azad. Khadijah Hossain Sabiha co-moderated the event while Faridur Reza Sagar, Managing Director, Channel I, Asish Shaikat Ghosh, Chief News Editor of Independent Television, and Rezanul Haq Rana, Head of News, Maasranga Television attended the event as special guests.

After the inaugural ceremony and the welcoming speech by the distinguished guests, a debating session between children aged between 10 and 11, took place.  The topic of the debate was how the recent trends of computers, tablets, and laptops positively aid children's mental growth.

This session was followed by a workshop where Uttam Rai guided the young debaters on their presentation skills, pronunciation, spoken stylistics, pre-prep techniques, and microphone usage.

The NDF BD format debate competition was the next installment. The topic of this session was how our ancestors were more talented than we are. Debaters Noor-E-Jannat, Sahara Khatun, and Sanjita Kotha supported the argument whereas, Jannaul Ferdous Liza, Armani Tarofdar, and Saiful Islam presented their views in opposed to this notion.

This lead to the English public speaking competition where over 300 participants from various academic institutions spoke on "If I ruled the world…" Simultaneously, a national quiz competition between 70 quiz teams from all over the country was being hosted in a separate room at Bangla Academy.

After lunch, a debate between people from various professions graced the stage. They spoke about their jobs, highlighting the pros and cons.

The event came to an end with the prize-giving ceremony where the winners were presented with crests, certificates, and prizes.