Their gestures became more animated, their tone of voice more urgent, their arguments more succinct and critical. Halfway through the final of the Kerala region’s ‘Great Debate,’ both teams were prepared to go straight for the jugular to emerge clear winners and qualify for the national finals scheduled in New Delhi in November.
In the end, it was the team representing the Mar Baselios College of Engineering, Titto Paul and M.S. Gopika, that delivered the more convincing argument.
Organised for the first time in the State by the British Deputy High Commission in Chennai, the competition was attended by 18 teams from across Kerala. The competition was held last year, but on a smaller scale with venues in New Delhi and Kolkata. This time, eight centres are involved and the Kerala chapter was organised in partnership with the British Council in Chennai, the University of Kerala, the Chevening Scholarship programme and Virgin Atlantic. In the finale, the two teams contested the subject that there is a gap between academic achievement and career prospects.
The runner-up was Government College for Women, represented by Renjitha Rajan and Kavya Nair, who argued for the motion that there was a gap. They spoke of the deficiencies of the current education system, how its inherent reliance on memorising information was flawed and did not help a person to be skilled to perform a job well. The winning team who argued against the motion honed in on the point that it wasn’t so much a skill gap as much as an issue of unemployment caused by there being too few jobs for the masses graduating every year. The panel included economist Amit Shuvon Ray, Director of the Centre for Development Studies, Achuthsankar S. Nair, Director of the Centre for Bioinformatics and Oommen V. Oommen, Chairperson of the Kerala State Biodiversity Board.