OSCE Mission to Moldova organizes tournaments to develop students’ debating skills

The OSCE Mission to Moldova is supporting two tournaments in order to develop the debating skills of youth belonging to national minorities in September and October.

The first debate tournament took place on 30 September in Comrat and gathered 28 high school students from Bălți, Bender, Cahul, Ceadîr-Lunga, Comrat, Tiraspol and Vulcănești. The participants discussed the positive and negative aspects of new information technologies and their impact on communication between people. Through two rounds of debate where groups practiced both sides of the argument for a total of two and a half hours, students had the opportunity to improve their leadership and public speaking skills as well as their teamwork. Another debate tournament will be organized on 28 October in Ceadîr-Lunga for a different group of students.

Tatiana Zlatova of Mihai Eminescu Lyceum in Comrat shared her take on the event: “It was very interesting to listen to other teams and see how technology can weaken real life communication. I also thought about the role of communication in the life of a person and society as a whole.  I grapple with questions like: “Does communication facilitate development?” and “Do we become smarter and kinder when we talk face to face?”

The Mission is organizing these tournaments in co-operation with the NGO Piligrim-Demo as a follow-up to earlier debate training in June. The aim is to help students apply newly acquired knowledge and skills in their current and future professional lives. The activities use academic debate as a means to promote civic education and develop critical thinking, while also building confidence among youth from both banks of Dniester/Nistru River.