The Tuen Mun Goverment Secondary School girls move on to Round 2 of debate series
In a battle of wits, Adele Ho, Haley Fok, and Tiffany Leung had to use up-to-the-minute facts to prove their arguments
The debaters and their coaches. (Fom left) The Tuen Mun Goverment Secondary School (TMG) girls trumped the Ying Wa College (YWC) boys at the 2015-2016 Hong Kong Secondary Schools Debating Competition Term 2 Round 1 Division III Standard Format Debate last Friday.
On the motion “Hong Kong needs electronic road pricing”, Tuen Mun Government Secondary School took the affirmative against Ying Wa College on the negative.
Adele Ho Lok-in from TMG was named the best speaker. Her calm and confident style, combined with excellent use of rhetorical questions supported her rebuttals where she showed her knowledge and diligent research on the current privacy laws of Hong Kong.
Adele and her TMG teammates Haley Fok Hei-yi and Tiffany Leung Tsz-ching – all Form Two – won thanks to their clear case division and overall structure. They solidified their arguments with up-to-date evidence and persuasive speaking that showed a strong sense of audience awareness.
The best argument of the debate came when discussing the issue of fairness of the electronic road pricing system. TMG argued that those who use the roads more should pay more, while YWC said this would create an unfair situation. Their logic was that the rich are able to pay more, putting the poor at a disadvantage as they would have to pay the same amount regardless of income level.
Both teams quoted interesting facts and figures from the census department about income levels in Hong Kong to support their respective arguments.
While YWC made some strong points, their case division, examples and evidence was not as clear as their opponents’.
Adjudicators were surprised to hear the students compare education and medical expenses to the money being invested in the electronic road pricing system. TMG first brought the issue to the table, asking: “Why is our government investing billions and billions every year in education and medication?”
“It’s because they are beneficial to our society as a whole,” they continued, quickly laying the foundation for their argument. “The same should apply to the electronic road pricing system because it is good for our entire society.”
It was quick thinking and creativity like this that set the team up for success, and led them to victory.