Friday mornings allow me a few more hours of sleep than other days. But the Friday morning on 9 February was different. I did not get any extra sleep; rather I woke up at dawn. This Friday morning, I was going to welcome debaters from all over the country to the capital. This was the first day of Trust Bank 11th NDF BD National Debate Festival 2018.
The festival took place on February 9-10. Almost 2000 debaters from various institutions came together and made the festival a spectacle.
The biggest debate festival of the country was inaugurated by the honourable Minister of State, Shahriar Alam. He encouraged the debaters and advised them to participate in debate alongside their academic studies.
The festival started with its flagship award, giving Lifetime Achievement Award to one of the pioneers of debating in our country -- Hasan Chowdhury Ahmed Kiron. He shared his 25 years of journey with debaters in his acceptance speech. After the opening ceremony, the theme song of NDF BD was launched.
There were more than 12 categories of debate, including unique formats like Children's category, where the primary school kids participate; Global debate, in which foreign students come to talk about their own customs and traditions, using Bangla); Planchette debate, in which the performers play the characters of famous personalities); Fun debate, basically satirical discourse; and many more were staged in these two day fest.
Alongside all this, NDF organised Inter-School English Debate Championship and National Quiz Competition. In the English debate, Academia School from Dhaka won the open category and Notre Dame College won the novice category. The team from BAF Shaheen College won the quiz competition after a tiebreaking round.
Since debaters come from different parts of Bangladesh, NDF BD came up with a new format of debate called Regional Debate. In this format, debaters represent their home districts and perform in their regional dialect. Every year, participants await this regional debate.
There were also two workshops on "How to be a champion in a battle of minds", conducted by the World Debate winning team from BUET. The other one was taken by Rashedul Hasan Stalin on "How to Participate in World Debate". From the workshop, participants learned about team spirit, time management, script writing, winning strategy etc.
After the workshops, a cultural evening brightened the festival. Performers from all the different districts performed in it. In the closing ceremony, the winners of English public speaking competition and Bangla Baroary Bitorko were announced.
NDF BD honoured their debaters, teachers and moderators by presenting them with NDF BD Scroll of Honour. They also recognised their young debaters, event organisers and trainee fellows by awarding them NDF BD Rising Star and NDF BD Youth Icon Award.
Not only did NDF BD give away their prizes to their fellows, they gave crests and certificates to the institutions of different divisions as per their activities and participation in debate. This two day program was presided over by the Chairperson of NDF BD, AKM Shoaib.
Trust Bank was the title sponsor of the festival while Channel I, Anonna and Solo Invest were co-sponsors.
In the end, debaters from Dhaka, Chittagong, Barisal, Khulna, Rangpur, Comilla, Rajshahi and Sylhet bade farewell to each other. Some became friends in this short period. Emotions were running high among the young debaters. Many of them were seen saying tearful goodbyes to their new friends.
The purpose of this festival is not only to teach the attendees about debating, but to also help them realize different dimensions, invent new horizons, shape perspectives, increase self-confidence, and above all, assist them to move ahead with a spirit pursue their passions.
With a bunch of new knowledge, friendships and countless moments immortalized in photographs, the debaters left the premises of Bangladesh Shishu Academy, already looking forward to meeting again next year.
The writer is studying at Department of English, East West University
