Ntsika Secondary School will go up against some of the country's best school debaters following their triumph in the annual provincial road safety school debates in Port Elizabeth earlier this month.
Ntsika Secondary School will go up against some of the country's best school debaters following their triumph in the annual provincial road safety school debates in Port Elizabeth earlier this month.
"We are very excited, because we are the first school in Grahamstown to win it. Nzondelelo High won it three times in a row," said member of the debating team Siphosethu Ralo. Their teacher was just as thrilled. "My students were so brilliant because they got the topic there and had to work on it within the space of 20 minutes," said Lungile Ralo.
The topic for the semi-finals was 'Education is more important than law-enforcement in the reduction of road collisions on South African Roads'. Ntsika were the proposers, and they went through to the final.
Having made it through the semis, their next topic was 'Drugs and alcohol are the major causes of road collisions on South African Roads among the youth'. "We were opposing and we spoke about speed and fatigue, based on the arguments of the Arrive Alive campaign," Ralo said.
"We have to be over the moon. When your team wins against big regions in the district, it almost feels like a dream," said student facilitator from the Makana branch of the Department of Roads and Transport, Sizwe Mapuma. "Representing a small region like Makana and coming top is great."
He said they plan to get more schools involved and expand the project. "We will be doing Grade 12 next year, so we will not be involved in the debate club. We will teach and mentor the younger grades," said Ralo.
Ntsika were up against 10 other schools from the Cacadu district. They were the only team from Makana and have qualified to take part in the national road safety school debates in Port Elizabeth on 25 and 26 September.
