TAN SRI DATUK SERI PANGLIMA DR. ABDUL RAHMAN ARSHAD CHALLENGE TROPHY ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEBATE COMPETITION FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS RULES AND GUIDELINES TAN SRI DATUK SERI PANGLIMA DR. ABDUL RAHMAN ARSHAD CHALLENGE TROPHY ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEBATE COMPETITION RULES AND GUIDELINES PART 1 1.0 2.0 Name & Background 1.1 The competition shall be known as the Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Dr. Abdul Rahman Arshad Challenge Trophy English Language Debate Competition. 1.2 The competition serves as a platform for students nationwide to compete in a debating competition that is based on the international standard of the World Schools Debating Championship. Format 2.1 2.2 A team must consist of 3 main debaters and 2 reserves. The proposing team is known as the Government while the opposing team is known as the Opposition. 2.3 Allocation of time and speaking order: TURN GOVERNMENT TURN OPPOSITION TIME 1 1st Debater 2 1st Debater 8 minutes 3 2nd Debater 4 2nd Debater 8 minutes 5 3rd Debater 6 3rd Debater 8 minutes 8 Reply Speech 7 Reply Speech 4 minutes 1st / 2nd Government 1st / 2nd Opposition 2.4 Third debaters from both teams shall not introduce any new arguments. Their role is to rebut the opponent and to defend the position of the team. 2.5 While a debater is speaking, the opposing team can offer ‘Point(s) Of Information’ (formal interjections). The debater may accept or decline it/them. 1 3.0 2.6 After all debaters have spoken once, the 1st or 2nd debater of each team gives a reply speech with the Opposition reply speech being delivered first followed by the Government. 2.7 The debate shall be judged according Adjudicators provided in Part 2 of this paper. to the Guidelines for Eligibility 3.1 The competition is open to all students from Form 1 to 5 from all governmentaided secondary schools under the purview of the Ministry of Education, Malaysia except residential schools. 3.2 A school / state is allowed to send only one team to participate in the competition. Number of participations at other levels shall be at the discretion of the respective organisers. 3.3 The active speaking members from each team should consist of at least one bumiputera student from the same school / state. Exceptions should be made if the student population consists of a particular ethnic group as the demographic in that school. 3.3.1 If there is evidence prior to, during or after the competition contrary to the declared status, the team will be disqualified. 3.4 Every member of a participating team should come from the same school at district level only. 3.4.1 4.0 Representatives to the state and national level can be chosen from different schools. Adjudication 4.1 A panel of 3 or more odd-numbered adjudicators will be appointed for all the rounds at all levels. The Grand Final at the national level will be adjudicated by a panel appointed by the Division of Co-curriculum and Arts, Ministry of Education. 4.2 Adjudicators are to be appointed by the Division of Co-curriculum and Arts, Ministry of Education for national level competition and by State Education Departments for state level competition. 4.3 All appointed adjudicators should not adjudicate the team from their own schools / districts / states unless there are no qualified adjudicators available. 4.4 All adjudicators should be briefed on the rules of adjudication before the competition. 2 5.0 4.5 Points will be allocated according to the score sheet. 4.6 Each debate will be won by the team which scores a majority of votes from the adjudicators in the panel. Scores awarded by adjudicators are not to be added together to decide the winner. Adjudicators shall decide the winner of the debate independently. 4.7 The Speaker of the House will collect the score sheets and the result slip from the Chief Adjudicator to be submitted to the tab master. 4.8 Once the score sheets have been handed in, the adjudicators shall meet and confer on the Best Debater. 4.9 The oral adjudication should be constructive, short and explain the result to the debaters and audience. In particular, it should outline the key reasons why the winning team won, and comment on the significant matters of the debate. 4.10 At the end of the competition, all the participating teams will receive the full results. 4.11 Certificates of achievement and participation will be awarded to respective teams. Procedure of Debate 5.1 Debate Process 5.1.1 Wherever possible, all competitions should run according to the process given below: 5.1.1.1 District level organisers should conduct a two-day competition involving a minimum of two preliminary rounds with at least one prepared round and one impromptu round. The Grand Final should be a prepared round. 5.1.1.2 In cases where there are 8 teams or more, it is advisable to conduct at least three preliminary rounds. 5.1.1.3 The competition should be conducted by having 2 or 3 preliminary rounds on the first day and knockout rounds on the second day. 3 5.1.1.4 The rounds shall be decided based on; i. First round shall be done by a random draw. ii. Second round onwards shall be conducted using a powermatching system. iii. Power-matching is drawing winners of the first round to be matched against other winners and vice-versa. iv. The match-ups shall be decided after ranking each team immediately after a round. v. Teams shall be ranked first by the number of wins, then by the number of ballots, then by the total team scores. vi. Ballots are the votes of the adjudicators where winning by a unanimous decision is better than winning by a split decision. vii. On the contrary, losing by a split decision is better than losing by a unanimous decision. viii. After the first round, a team with the highest number of wins, followed by the number of ballots gathered, then by the total team score shall be ranked 1st. ix. After teams have been ranked, team ranked number 1 shall meet team ranked number 2 for the second round in competitions involving four teams. x. In competitions involving 6 teams, team ranked 1st shall meet team ranked 3rd, team ranked 2nd shall meet the team ranked 4th, and the team ranked 5th shall meet team ranked 6th. xi. In competitions involving 8 teams, the team ranked 1st after round one shall be matched against team ranked 3rd, team ranked 2nd shall meet team ranked 4th, team ranked 5rd shall meet team ranked 7th and team ranked 6th shall meet team ranked 8th, and so on. xii. The ranking continues and match-ups are drawn until all preliminary rounds are over. xiii. After preliminary rounds are over, teams shall be ranked to decide qualifying into the knockout stage. 5.1.2 The knockout stage shall be conducted as follows. 5.1.2.1 For competitions involving 4 teams, a Grand Final shall be conducted with team ranked 1st meeting team ranked 2nd after two preliminary rounds. 5.1.2.2 For competitions involving at least 6 teams, impromptu semifinals shall be conducted with team ranked 1st meeting team ranked 4th and team ranked 2nd meeting team ranked 3rd. 5.1.2.3 For competitions involving at least 10 teams, impromptu quarter-finals shall be conducted with team ranked 1st meeting team ranked 8th, team ranked 2nd meeting team ranked 7th, team ranked 3rd meeting team ranked 6th, and team ranked 4th meeting team ranked 5th. 5.1.2.4 After the quarter-finals, the winner of the first quarter-final shall meet the winner of the fourth quarter-final (winner of 1st vs 8th meets winner of 4th vs 5th) in an impromptu semi-finals. 5.1.2.5 The Grand Final shall be a prepared round. 4 5.1.3 Debates Using the Prepared Motions 5.1.3.1 The motions and sides for the prepared debates will be given to the competing teams at least 2 weeks before the competition; except for the Grand Final where only the motion is provided and sides will be drawn after the semi-finals. 5.1.3.2 No quarantine time will be given for the debate but teams will be seated in the debate room 10 minutes before the debate begins to organise their notes. 5.1.3.3 Any team that is late would have to inform the organisers within 5 minutes of the scheduled time. 5.1.3.4 The organisers shall only allow a maximum waiting time of 15 minutes before the team forfeits the debate and the team present will be awarded a walk-over. 5.1.3.5 In a walk-over, the losing team will be awarded the minimum score of 60 for each speaker and 30 for reply with a -3 ballot score. The winning team shall receive a winning total of 70 for each debater and 35 for reply with a +3 ballot score. 5.1.3.6 The scores shall be entered and the teams shall be ranked according to their overall performance in the preliminary rounds. 5.1.4 Debates Using the Impromptu Motions 5.1.4.1 The motions for the impromptu debates will be given and sides are drawn at the start of the quarantine session. 5.1.4.2 Teams will then be quarantined in their quarantine rooms for ONE hour to prepare for the debate. The quarantine officers must be in the room with the team. 5.1.4.3 Any team that is late would have to inform the organisers within 5 minutes of the scheduled time, failure of which, the team already present will be allowed to draw their side and quarantine time will commence. A grace period of not more than 30 minutes will be given to the team that is late after which quarantine time commences. 5.1.4.4 A team which is late (more than 5 minutes without information on their whereabouts) would automatically take on the other position contrary to what the team already present has drawn. The time for quarantine commences. 5.1.4.5 Only team members competing (3 main debaters and 2 reserves) will be allowed in the quarantine room. The team members should not be in contact with any unauthorised personnel. 5.1.4.6 Teams are allowed to use their own printed reference materials in the quarantine room. No electronic gadgets are allowed. Teams found using electronic gadgets will be DISQUALIFIED from the competition. 5 5.1.5 Teams are required to be seated at the debate venue(s) 5 minutes before the debate commences. 5.1.6 If any one team fails to show up 5 minutes after the scheduled time, without any valid reason, the team will be DISQUALIFIED. A walk-over will be awarded to the team that is present. 5.1.7 If there is prompting / help / assistance / communication from any individual other than the debaters during the quarantine time and debate competition, the team will be DISQUALIFIED. 5.1.8 Clarification of the motion should be provided for the impromptu motions. 5.2 The Role of the Speaker of the House 5.2.1 Each debate will be chaired by a Speaker of the House who will be addressed as Mister or Madam Speaker. 5.2.2 The Speaker of the House is responsible for the smooth running of the debate and inviting the respective debaters to present their speeches in order of their roles. 5.2.3 Before inviting debaters to present their speeches, The Speaker of the House will read out the rules of the debate and then proceed to introduce the timekeeper, adjudicators and debaters. 5.2.4 The Speaker of the House MUST refrain from making any comment concerning the debate or debaters during the debate. 5.2.5 The Speaker of the House must ensure that the adjudicators be given enough time to fill in their marks and wait for the signal from the Chief Adjudicator before the next debater is called. 5.3 The Role of the Timekeeper. 5.3.1 The Timekeeper must ensure that each debater is given 8 minutes to deliver his or her speech. 5.3.2 The Timekeeper will ring the bell once after the 1st minute and at the end of the 7th minute to signal the time allocated for Point(s) of Information. At the end of the 8th minute, the bell will be rung twice. Placards must be used by the timekeeper to indicate the remaining time left, at intervals of one minute. 6 5.3.3 A maximum time of 3 minutes will be given to both teams to prepare for the Reply Speech. 5.3.4 During the Reply Speech, the Timekeeper will ring the bell once at the 3rd minute to signal that the debater has 1 minute left. At the end of the 4th minute, the bell will be rung twice to signal the end of the debate. 5.3.5 After each speech, the Timekeeper will announce the time taken by each debater. 5.4 The Speaker of the House and Timekeeper should be students. 7 PART 2 Guidelines for Adjudicators A. Marking Standard 1.0 2.0 3.0 Marks 1.1 Each debater's substantive speech is marked out of 100, with 40 for Content, 40 for Style (20 for Language and 20 for Manner) and 20 for Strategy. 1.2 The reply speech is marked out of 50, with 20 for Content, 20 for Style (10 for Language and 10 for Manner) and 10 for Strategy. 1.3 In order to encourage consistency of marks, speeches are marked within the accepted range and adjudicators must not go outside that range. (See the Marking Standard - Annex 1). 1.4 If a debater declares is unable to make his/her speech after a debate has begun, another member of the team who was announced by the speaker of the house as being an active speaker in that debate may speak in his/her place. In such a situation, adjudicators shall award the speech the lowest possible score within the Marking Standard, regardless of the quality of the speech. 1.5 Adjudicators must not use any other marking standard or categories of marks. Content 2.1 Content is the argument used by a debater, divorced from the speaking style. 2.2 If an argument is weak, it should be marked accordingly, even if the other team does not expose its weakness. 2.3 In deciding the strength or weakness of an argument, adjudicators should not be influenced by their own personal beliefs or specialised knowledge. Style Style comprises Language and Manner. 3.1 Language 3.1.1 Language refers to using appropriate expressions containing correct sentence structures and grammar. 3.1.2 It also covers pronunciation, fluency, rhythm, intonation and clarity of 8 speech. English being a second language here, adjudicators should not be looking for Queen’s English in our debaters, but any expression which is not clearly understood should not merit high marks in the Language section. 3.1.3 On the other hand, any good language expression, including the use of figures of speech, idioms, etc., appropriate and apt to the occasion, may merit positive marks for Language. 3.2 Manner 3.2.1 Manner is the way a debater speaks. This can be noted in many ways; accent, body language (movement, poise, meaningful gestures and eye contact) and with the use of specific terminology. Be tolerant of different ways in presenting arguments. 3.2.2 In general, the use of palm-cards, lecterns, folders, notepads or other forms of debaters notes should not affect the mark a debater is given. 3.2.3 However, debaters should not read their speeches, but should use notes that they refer to only from time to time. 4.0 Strategy 4.1 Strategy covers two concepts: 4.1.1 Whether a debater understands what the issues of the debate are. 4.1.2 The structure and timing of a debater’s speech. 4.2 A debater who answers the critical issues with weak responses should get poor marks for Content but good marks for Strategy. 9 B. Definitions and Cases 1.0 The Government must present a reasonable definition of a motion. This means: 1.1 On receiving a motion, both teams should ask: ‘What is the issue that the two teams are expected to debate? What would an average reasonable person reading the motion think that it is about?’ 1.2 If the motion poses a clear issue for debate (i.e. it has an obvious meaning), the Government must define the motion accordingly. When the motion has an obvious meaning (one which the average reasonable person would realise), any other definition would not be reasonable. 1.3 If there is no obvious meaning to the motion, the range of possible meanings is limited to those that allow for a reasonable debate. Choosing a meaning that does not allow the Opposition room for debate would not be a reasonable definition. Truisms and tautologies leave the Opposition no room for debate and are clearly illegitimate. 1.4 When defining words in the motion so as (i) to allow the obvious meaning to be debated or (ii) when there is no obvious meaning to give effect to a possible meaning which would allow for a reasonable debate, the Government must ensure that the definition is one the average reasonable person would accept. 2.0 The definition must match the level of abstraction (or specificity) of the motion, so that the debate is as specific or general as the motion itself. Specific motions should be defined specifically and general motions generally. 3.0 Motions expressed as general principles must be proven true as general principles. A single example will neither prove nor disprove a general principle. Finding arguments that explain the majority of relevant examples will be more important. 4.0 When suggesting parameters to the debate, or proposing particular models or criteria to adjudicate it by, the Government must ensure such parameters, models or criteria are themselves reasonable. They must be ones that the average reasonable person would accept as applicable to the debate. 4.1 The Government ability to set reasonable parameters to a debate does not provide a license to restrict the motion arbitrarily. 4.2 When the motion requires the Government to propose a solution to a problem and the Government has to set out the details of its proposed 10 solution to prove its effectiveness, the Government must ensure that the detailed solution given (the Government ‘model’ or ‘plan’) is a reasonable one, such that the average reasonable person would accept it is applicable to the debate. 5.0 If the Government definition is unreasonable, the Opposition may: 5.1 Accept it anyway (and debate the Government case regardless); 5.2 Challenge it (argue that the definition is unreasonable, put up an alternative, reasonable definition and a case based on this); 5.3 Broaden the debate back to the words in the motion (if the Government has unreasonably restricted the motion and is arguing a narrower version of it); 5.4 Challenge the definition (as in 5.2), but argue that ‘even if’ it is reasonable, the Government case is flawed (as in 5.1). 6.0 Once the definition is settled, each team has to present a case, supported by arguments and examples. Therefore debates shall not be evaluated based on their definitions alone. 6.1 A case sums up the team arguments and states why its side of the motion is correct. 6.2 Arguments are reasons or rationales why the team case is correct. 6.3 Examples are facts, events, occurrences and the like that show the team arguments are correct. 7.0 Whereas an unduly restrictive definition (such as limiting a general motion to a single example) is illegitimate and can be challenged or broadened, a Government that runs a restrictive case (such as limiting itself to a single argument) acts legitimately and cannot be challenged for doing so, but runs the risk of the Opposition being able to more easily counter that case (by disproving that one argument and/ or by raising other arguments that disprove the motion, as defined). 8.0 In all cases, the team that manages to provide reasons as to why their definition and cases are the most reasonable, practical and beneficial shall win the debate. If a debater claims that a definition or a case is unreasonable, then they should state reasons to support that claim. Adjudicators should balance reasons and rebuttals in determining which team wins. 11 C. The Roles of Debaters 1.0 The role of the first debater of a Government is to define the topic, establish the issues for the debate, outline the Government case, announce the case division between the debaters, and present his or her part of the Government case. The first speaker may introduce as many points that he/she feels can be adequately explained given the time limitations. 2.0 The Government may define the topic in any way provided that the definition: 3.0 2.1 Is reasonably close to the plain meaning of the topic, 2.2 Allows the opposition team reasonable room to debate, 2.3 Is not tautological or truistic, and 2.4 Is otherwise a reasonable definition. Squirrelling, place-setting and time-setting are not permitted. 3.1 Squirrelling is the distortion of the definition to enable a team to argue a pre- prepared argument that it wishes to debate regardless of the motion actually set; 3.2 Place-setting is the setting of a debate of general application in a particular place. 3.3 Time-setting is the setting of a debate of general application in a particular time, past or future. 4.0 The role of the first debater of an opposition side is to respond to the Government case, outline the Opposition case, announce the case division, and present his or her part of the Opposition case. 5.0 The first opposition may challenge the definition only if it does not conform to 2.0 or 3.0 (B) above. If it challenges the definition, the first opposition must propose a new definition that conforms to 2.0 and 3.0 (B) and oppose that new definition. 6.0 If the first opposition does not challenge the definition, the Opposition is taken to have accepted the definition and the Opposition may not challenge the definition in any other speech unless the Government significantly alters the definition in their subsequent speeches. 7.0 In responding to the Government case, the Opposition may produce a positive choice of its own, or merely attack the case presented by the Government. If it 12 chooses to produce a positive case of its own, it must in fact produce that case through its speeches, and not concentrate solely on attacking the case presented by the Government. 8.0 The role of the second debater of a Government is to deal with the d efinition if it has been challenged, respond to the opposition case, and continue with the Government case as outlined by the first debater. 9.0 If the second government does not challenge a redefinition of the debate made by the first opposition, the Government is taken to have accepted the Opposition redefinition and no further challenges to the definition may be made. 10.0 The role of the second debater of an Opposition is to deal with the definition if it is still in issue, respond to the Government case, and continue with the Opposition case as outlined by the first debater. 11.0 The role of both third debaters is to deal with the definition if it is still in issue, and respond to the other team case. 12.0 The third debater of either team may have a small part of the team case to present, but his is not obligatory as the third debater’s primary role is to respond to what has gone before in the debate. 13.0 Third debaters should not bring new arguments; new examples to explain points that were made previously or to explain a rebuttal is not considered a new argument. 14.0 The more a debate progresses, the more each debater must spend time dealing with what has been said by previous debaters. 15.0 Hence the more a debate progresses, the less time will be spent by each debater in presenting a new part of the team case and the more time will be spent responding to the other team arguments. 16.0 The role of reply speeches is to sum up the debate from the team viewpoint, including a response to the other team overall case and a summary of the debater’s own team case. 17.0 A reply debater may be either the first or second debater of the team, not the third. 18.0 The reply debaters are in reverse order, with the Opposition reply first and the Government reply last. 19.0 Neither reply debater may introduce a new part of the team case. 13 20.0 A reply debater may respond to an existing argument by raising a new example that illustrates that argument, but may not otherwise introduce a new argument. 21.0 A Government does not have to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, but merely that its case is true in the majority of cases or as a general government. 22.0 An opposition does not have to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, but merely that its case is true in the majority of cases or as a general. 23.0 Where the topic is expressed as an absolute, a Government must prove the topic true in the significant majority of cases, but not in every single conceivable instance. 24.0 Where the topic is expressed as an absolute, an Opposition must do more than present a single instance where the topic is not true and prove that it is not true for at least a majority of cases. 25.0 An Opposition, beyond disproving that the Government arguments are flawed as rebuttals must present a case that proves harms on the Government case or more benefits on their case. 26.0 An Opposition cannot merely rebut a Government without having a position or case that is supported by arguments to fulfil their role. D. Point of Information 1.0 Between the first and seventh minutes of a debater’s substantive speech, members of the other team may offer points of information. 2.0 The purpose of a point of information is to make a short point or ask a short question of the debater. 3.0 Point of information need not be addressed through the person chairing the debate, and may be in the form of a question. 4.0 A point of information should be brief, and no longer than 15 seconds. 4.1 Point of information is an important part of the clash between the teams, and enable debaters to remain a part of the debate even when they are not making a speech; 4.2 Hence a debater should offer points of information both before and after he or she has given his or her substantive speech. 14 5.0 A debater has the absolute right to refuse to accept a point of information, or to accept it only at the end of the next sentence. 6.0 However, a debater is obliged to accept some points of information, provided that they have been offered at reasonable times in the debater’s speech. 7.0 As a general rule, a debater should accept at least 2 points of information in his or her speech. However, a debater who accepts a significantly greater number of points of information risks losing control of his or her speech. 8.0 Members of the opposing team should not offer an excessive number of points of information to the point that they are barracking. As a general rule, each team member should offer between 2 and 4 points of information per speech, and should not offer them within a short time of a previous point of information having been offered. 9.0 The response by a debater to a point of information should be included in the mark for that debater’s speech. 10.0 The offering of points of information should be included in the mark for the debater offering points. Revised: 10th January 2017 The Division of Sports, Co-Curricular and Arts Ministry of Education Malaysia 15 Annex One : The Marking Standard 1. Substantive Speeches (out of 100) STANDARD OVERALL (100) CONTENT (40) STYLE (40) STRATEGY (20) LANGUAGE (20) MANNER (20) Excellent 76-80 31-32 15-16 15-16 15-16 Good 71-75 29-30 14-15 14-15 14-15 70 28 14 14 14 Satisfactory 65-69 26-27 13-14 13-14 13-14 Weak 60-64 24-25 12-13 12-13 12-13 Average 2. Reply Speeches (out of 50) STANDARD OVERALL (50) CONTENT (20) STYLE (20) STRATEGY (10) LANGUAGE (10) MANNER (10) Excellent 38-40 15-16 8 8 8 Good 36-37 14-15 7.5 7.5 7.5 35 14 7 7 7 Satisfactory 33-34 13-14 6.5 6.5 6.5 Weak 30-32 12-13 6 6 6 Average In marking reply speeches it might be easier to mark them out of 100 and then halve each mark. That will leave you with half-mark steps, but that is not a problem. Thus a reply speech could be given, say, 13.5 for content, 14.5 for style and 7.5 for strategy, for a total of 35.5. 16 TAN SRI DATUK SERI PANGLIMA DR ABDUL RAHMAN ARSHAD CHALLENGE TROPHY ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEBATE COMPETITION FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS ADJUDICATION FORMS TAN SRI DATUK SERI PANGLIMA DR ABDUL RAHMAN ARSHAD CHALLENGE TROPHY ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEBATE COMPETITION SCORING SHEET Round: Room: Name of Adjudicator: Motion:_ STYLE (40) GOVERNMENT TIME CONTENT (40) LANGUAGE (20) MANNER (20) STRATEGY (20) SPEAKER SCORE (100) STYLE (40) OPPOSITION First Debater First Debater Second Debater Second Debater Third Debater Third Debater STYLE (20) GOVERNMENT TIME CONTENT (20) LANGUAGE (10) MANNER (10) STRATEGY (10) GOV. REPLY: SPEAKER SCORE (50) TIME CONTENT (40) CONTENT OPPOSITION TIME (20) LANGUAGE (20) Winner: Please circle the winning side (Government/Opposition) Margin (Winning Team – Losing Team) ____________________________ Adjudicator’s Signature: ______________________ STRATEGY (20) SPEAKER SCORE (100) STRATEGY (10) SPEAKER SCORE (50) STYLE (20) LANGUAGE (10) OPP. REPLY: TOTAL TEAM SCORES MANNER (20) TOTAL TEAM SCORES MANNER (10) TAN SRI DATUK SERI PANGLIMA DR ABDUL RAHMAN ARSHAD CHALLENGE TROPHY ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEBATE COMPETITION FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL TIMING ROLE First Government First Opposition Second Government Second Opposition Third Government Third Opposition Reply – Opposition Reply - Government Timekeeper’s Name Timekeeper’s Signature Date TIME TAN SRI DATUK SERI PANGLIMA DR ABDUL RAHMAN ARSHAD CHALLENGE TROPHY ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEBATE COMPETITION FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS _____________ LEVEL / YEAR __ RESULTS RESULT (Adjudicator’s vote) WINNING TEAM TEAM: GOVERNMENT / OPPOSITION Chief Adjudicator’s Signature ( : ) TAN SRI DATUK SERI PANGLIMA DR ABDUL RAHMAN ARSHAD CHALLENGE TROPHY ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEBATE COMPETITION VIRTUAL PLATFORM METHOD OF COMPETITION FOR STATE LEVEL 1.0 Overall This competition will be conducted mostly online. All debate sessions are going to be conducted via Zoom as the primary platform. Each virtual room for all competition rounds will consist of three active speakers and two reserved speakers from both teams, one timekeeper, one chairperson and three judges. 2.0 Details 2.1 For the debating technicality, this competition is still following the concept paper released by the Sports, Co-curricular and Arts Division (BSKK), Ministry of Education Malaysia in the year 2018. 2.2 Each district will be represented by one team and the team members can be from various schools. However, there has to be at least ONE active Bumiputera speaker for each team. 2.3 For each day of the debate, pupils and teachers will be given a Zoom link to access the Main Meeting (Main Hall) of the tournament. The Main Hall will be the primary source of announcements, matchups and all things related to the tournament. 2.4 On the first day, there will be three preliminary rounds. All rounds will be conducted in different Zoom sessions. The number of sessions are according to the number of districts in each state. For the preliminary rounds, it will be following the league system which is in accordance to the BSKK concept paper. Tentative Schedule Day One: Order of Events Check-In Preliminary Round 1 Break Roll Call Prep Time Preliminary Round 2 Lunch Roll Call Prep Time BSKK, KPM Time 08.00 am 08.30 am 10.00 am 10.30 am 11.00 am 12.00 pm 02.00 pm 02.45 pm 03.00 pm Venue Zoom 1 2.5 Preliminary Round 3 04.00 pm The semi-final and quarter-final rounds will be conducted on the second day. Tentative Schedule Day Two: Order of Events Roll Call Prep Time Quarter Finals Break Roll Call Prep Time Semi Finals 2.6 Time 08.00 am 08.30 am 09.30 am 11.00 am 11.30 am 12.00 pm 01.00 pm Venue Zoom The final round will be on the third day. Tentative Schedule Day Three: Order of Events Roll Call Finals Break Winners’ Announcement, Prize Giving and Closing Remarks and End Time 08.00 am 08.30 am 10.00 am 11.00 am Venue Zoom 2.7 Each virtual room will be controlled by one Virtual Room Master (VRM) who can also be the timekeeper of the session. The VRM will approve and deny entry and also mute the mics of debaters when necessary. 2.8 In each virtual room, there will be one timekeeper, one chairperson, three active speakers of the government side, three active speakers of the opposition side, one accompanying teacher per team and three judges. However, the accompanying teachers and the reserves can only be the audience. They have to be in different physical rooms and they are required to keep their video and audio off all the time. 2.9 There will be no quarantine time for round one and final as both rounds are using prepared motions. There will be a surveillance of an hour quarantine time for preliminary round 2, round 3, quarter-final and semi-final round. Teams will get into breakout rooms. There should be two cameras set to monitor the room view during quarantine time. The cameras should capture from the front and back of all the debaters. Teams will be disqualified if they are caught having interaction with the mentors or getting help from outside sources. 2.10 The fixtures of all rounds will follow the Power Match-up System as stated in the BSKK concept paper. BSKK, KPM 2 2.11 The information of winning, fixture and motions for impromptu sessions will be delivered in the Main Hall as well as to JPN and PPD Officers. 2.12 Judges are going to be centralised at a place in their own district/state. 2.13 There will be an online closing ceremony at the end of the competition to officially close the competition. Full results will be announced in the closing ceremony. 3.0 Contingency in Case of Bad Connection 3.1 If any team appears to be filled with bad connection, the chief adjudicator should give each team a chance to reconnect. The adjudicator may choose to run the debate on Discord too. Similar rules will apply in Discord. BSKK, KPM 3