English High School Debating: Cultivating Critical Thinking in the Digital Age

Students confidently debating in English

The final round brought together 48 outstanding students who advanced from the preliminary stage to form 16 teams representing high schools across the city. The teams were paired by draw into 8 matchups and engaged in live debates on topics such as artificial intelligence, social media, digital education, the environment, and privacy…

Each match featured 2 teams competing head-to-head. One team argued in support of the selected motion, while the other presented the opposing view. The teams alternated turns in a structured format of proposition and opposition. Speaking time was evenly allocated, with each turn limited to no more than 2 minutes.

After 8 dramatic head-to-head rounds, the judging panel selected the highest-scoring teams to advance to the championship match. In the end, teams from Hai Ba Trung High School and An Luong Dong High School jointly won First Prize in the competition.

Awarding prizes to outstanding teams

According to Mr. Nguyen Vinh Hung, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training, in the digital era and amid the trend of global integration, foreign languages are no longer merely a school subject but have become an essential “key” to unlocking the treasury of human knowledge, providing strong support for learning and work. Today’s debating competition serves as a platform for students to hone those “golden” skills.

The competition not only showcases students’ foreign-language proficiency but also provides an opportunity to develop skills, creative thinking, and critical thinking, while expressing the younger generation’s multidimensional perspectives on real-life issues.

Since the 2023-2024 academic year, the Department of Education and Training has organized the English debating competition at the high school level to promote the comprehensive development of students’ English skills across general education schools in the city.