B.V.I. Tuesday, June 9 – Members of the Elmore Stoutt High School’s (ESHS) Literary and Debate Society won the 2009 Secondary Schools Debate Competition on Saturday night to wrap up activities held as part of the 2009 BVI National Science Fair. 

The three member, all female team won by a narrow margin, which was one third of a point, to beat the St. George’s Secondary School’s( debate team.

Elmore Stoutt High School team members Jenely Fraser, Nyssa Christopher and Kennisha Powell took the side of the proposition to argue the moot, “Sustainable development of the BVI is directly dependent on the preservation of its agricultural land”. Posing several questions and making a number of declarations for the moot, first proposition speaker Jenely Fraser opened the debate to a quiet audience at the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College Auditorium.

She made several points to outline her case including stating that as a Territory we cannot treat our resources, such as land, as a totally renewable resource considering the size of the Territory and availability of flat land.

Speaking for the opposition, team member Rosalie Richards led Ariane Tye and Al-Shaddai Ramsarran to re-but with the proposition’s arguments. They used several international examples of places where technology has freed agricultural land, yet yielded comparable outcomes in produce.

Team members highlighted Naurau, a British Overseas Territory like the BVI, boasting of its successes with new technology to produce food.

At the end of the debate, tabulator and science fair coordinator Mrs. Jillian Douglas Phillip announced the Elmore Stoutt High School to be the winners of the debate scoring 308.67 points to St. George’s 308.33 points. The points are the result of the average taken of the teams’ total score; ESHS scored 926 points while St. Georges Secondary scored 925 points.

Winners were awarded new personal computers by LIME, the event sponsor. Speaking at the presentation of the awards, LIME representative LaVerne Hodge expressed her delight at the debate, calling it a “nail biter”.

Other participants were presented with trophies and medals for debating and researching by Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Culture, Ms. Lorna Stevens. The debate was moderated by Information Officer in the Ministry of Education and Culture, Mr. Kareem Nelson Hull while judges were a mixture of HLSCC lecturers and science officials.

The secondary schools debate is held as part of the BVI National Science Fair now in its fourteenth year.