TSL National Debates – 24th and 25th June 2021

Students from Primary and Secondary took part in the 2 days National Debates about Protecting Biodiversity. The topic was ‘Global Biodiversity is in crisis – what can we do to prevent the 6th Mass extinction.? The students worked with local schools to develop a shared vision for a sustainable future. The main debaters were students who had entered the TSL essay competitions last year and these students were joined by observers and fellow debaters to express their views and to share ideas and solutions.
Primary team – Betty Namakose, Darnell Vincent, Ema Jesic, Estelle Brown and Axel Albert.
Secondary team – Vanshika Parikh, Janani Jagannathan, Yan Luc Morel and Srimugan Sankar
After an introduction from the Minister of Education Betty, Darnell and Vanshika read out their individual essays. This was followed by enriching presentations from Shane Emelie for Island Conservation society about the Biodiversity on Aride Island, from Maria Brioche from SIF about the Biodiversity in the Vallee de Mai and from Isabelle Ravina about the Seychelles National Parks Authority.
After some discussions the Primary debaters made a 5 minute presentation about how businesses could help protect biodiversity. Secondary ISS debaters were asked to take the part of Pro the statement about biodiversity and they made arguments agreeing that the 6th Mass extinction is inevitable.
All the participants in these 2 days of National Debate led by the Education for Sustainable Development unit of the Ministry of Education really enjoyed the debate and learnt a lot about Seychelles and Global biodiversity. Many thanks to ESD for organizing this event.
Winners of the Essay competition Vanshika, Betty and Darnell will take part in the TSL International debate on the 5th and 6th July.
Congratulations to everyone who took part in this event.