3-day Verbattle school debate contest from today

Verbattle, a not-for-profit organisation, is organising a national-level debate competition for school students in Bengaluru from January 18 to 25 at the Dayanand Sagar University campus, Kumaraswamy Layout.

The event will promote democratic, social, communication, intellectual, knowledge and scholastic skills in school students according to the organisers. It endeavours to discover young opinion leaders and foster leadership qualities in children. The competition will see teams from schools from all over India, including Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi.

School students in the age group of 12 to 16 years, studying in class 7 to 10, are eligible to participate. The competition, in English, will be a league tournament at the first level, with each team having to compete in not fewer than five debates and up to a maximum of six debates in case of a tie. The second level will be the Verbattle format of three teams on stage, with two debating 'for' and one 'against', or one 'for' and two 'against'.

The winning team gets Rs 2 lakh, while the finalists get (2 teams) Rs 50,000 each. The best speaker at Skirmish and the winning team's mentor win Rs 20,000. Registration fee is Rs 3,200 for outstation teams. This includes a participation fee of Rs 1,200, food and accommodation for two members and a mentor, besides travel from the airport, railway station or bus stand. Fee for students from Bengaluru city schools is Rs 1,200, without accommodation.

More details of the competition may be found on www.verbattle.com or helpline [phone].