…beats Mackenzie High in GPF debating contest

THE Guyana Police Force’s Traffic Department Inter-Secondary School Debating Competition came to an end on Monday afternoon with Hope Secondary, East Coast Demerara, emerging champion; Mackenzie High School took second place.
Traffic Chief Superintendent Linden Isles said that it was a delightful series of competitions that police ranks witnessed and Hope Secondary surprised them all.

“We have come to an end of a wonderful debating competition, a competition which ranks within the police force would have listened to the various schools. Hope Secondary would have come in like a ‘dark horse’ in the competition because we would have had schools like Bishops High, St. Joseph and other senior Secondary schools. They have done exceedingly well and I must applaud them,” Isles said.

Hope Secondary also took away the best speaker trophy,as the chief judge announced that Joshua Blackman, their second speaker, was unanimously voted the best presenter.

The competition has been ongoing for the past two months among various secondary schools across Guyana, with the aim of highlighting traffic issues and hearing possible solutions from the minds of the young people.

The two schools (Hope Secondary and Mackenzie High) debated in the final on the moot, “More extensive use of road safety patrols will contribute significantly to a reduction of traffic violations.”
Hope Secondary, the opposing team, argued vehemently against the statement. The points raised by these schoolchildren were enlightening and served as an eye-opener to the audience of police ranks.

They argued that in order to significantly decrease the number of traffic offences, “we must not increase road safety patrols, but rather, we must fix the corrupt licensing system and consequently, eradicate corrupt police officers.”

In that regard, Isles said “I hope the ranks from within the traffic department would have listened carefully to the debaters because it should not run on deaf ears. We have to take note and these constructive criticisms we have to accept. These are things that would have happened, but we as ranks of the Guyana Police Force and ranks of the traffic department should look at ourselves and put systems in place so these things cannot reoccur.”

He pointed out that since he took over as traffic officer in the month of September, they have been putting systems in place and have been looking at various issues to see how they can better the traffic situation and management. “We have introduced traffic education programmes in schools, and putting systems in place to have all those flaws corrected. We have heads from various divisions here with us, so I brought them so that they have a chance to listen to the young minds,” he said. Isles also noted that next year they will be hosting a quiz competition for primary schools and work towards making the competition bigger and better. He hopes to have more schools involved and get television coverage for the various legs of the competition.

The winning team received $100,000 and the runner-up, $75,000.