DOHA: The Kuwait debating team won first place in the sixth International School Debating Championship in Arabic on Monday for the first time. The event was held in the Qatari capital, Doha. The final debate between the Kuwaiti and Jordanian teams witnessed the discussion of the issue of dividing students into classes according to academic abilities, and the Kuwaiti team was able to convince the jury to win first place in the championship. The Kuwaiti team includes Ahmed Al-Hammoud, Abdullah Al-Jimaz, Janan Al-Sharif, and Nour Al-Ajil.

They took first place during the first qualifiers that were held at the Qatar debate center and then qualified for the final tournament against the Jordanian team. Janan Al-Sharif said in a statement to the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that she was pleased to achieve first place in the championship (without a loss), attributing it to the joint cooperation and intensification of training and thanking the debaters and coaches.

Al-Sharif stressed the intensity of the competition. Abdullah Al-Gemaz said in a similar statement that the result is the culmination of the long training period and preparation for the championship, stressing that the Kuwaiti team has not lost any debate since arriving in Doha. He added that “good training and a sense of responsibility were the weapons that brought us to the final and gave us motivation to achieve first place in the debate championship in front of the Jordanian team.”

The president of the Schools Debating Club in Kuwait, Bader Al-Shatti, pointed out that the students who were selected for the debate were filtered through the youth creativity league program of the General Authority for Youth and entered into a three-month training program. Through this program, the participants were filtered, and four of them were selected. He added that the students were trained at the youth centers of the General Authority for Youth.

Al-Shatti said that the team was able to surpass the competing teams in the tournament without losing any debate. This is the first time a Kuwaiti team has won this tournament, and two of its members also won individual awards. Al-Shatti expressed his happiness with this victory. He thanked the Ministry of Education, the General Authority for Youth, and all those who contributed to the success of the debate.- KUNA