YOUTHS have been drawn into the national conversation on constitutional reform with the start of a lively debate on the subject on Sunday.

Hosted by the recently formed lobbyist group, Reform-Inspire-Sustain-Educate (RISE), the event saw the Guyana Red Cross Society (GRCS) headquarters on Barrack Street, Kingston come alive, with students from the Bishop’s High School, the School of the Nations, and Queen’s College debating the subject, ‘There should be an overseas- based representative in the National Assembly’.

While in the first round of the competition, in which BHS opposed Nations, the first and second speakers of both sides aptly defended their positions, in the rebuttal round, the specialised rebutter from the opposition pontificated her team’s position and perhaps sealed the victory for BHS.
In the end, Bishop’s finished with 109 out of a total of 150 points, while Nations finished with 107.

For the second round, QC was scheduled to face another team from Nations, but just a few minutes shy of its commencement, the latter withdrew from the competition, thereby automatically qualifying their opponent for the next round.
Nevertheless, the opposition of this round was not given a total free pass, as the first and second speakers were still required to present their arguments against the moot, before the specialised rebutter could refute the counter-argument made by the pseudo-proposition.

After being judged following the standard criteria, the team scored a total of 117 out of 150 points.
The competition continues next Sunday at the same venue, with more teams weighing in on constitutional reform topics.
Teams from Linden, Essequibo, Berbice and more teams from Georgetown are expected to participate in the debates.