Concordia debate winners
Adjudicators assessed the learners on their presentation skills and content and chose the overall winner.
Working on Fire (WOF) in the Western Cape, together with the provincial education department (WCED) and Disaster Management Centre (WCDMC), as well as Garden Route District and Knysna municipalities, recently hosted its provincial Environmental School Debate Competition at Knysna Secondary School, with 20 learners from various schools in the Knysna community participating.
Grade 9 learners from Knysna Secondary, Concordia High, Percy Mdala, and Murray schools debated topics such as fire prevention, how fire causes land degradation, preserving natural resources and how climate change impacts fires.
Adjudicators assessed the learners on their presentation skills and content and chose the overall winner.
Aside from debating environmental issues that have a negative impact on our social and natural environments, participants were exposed to the key fire-safe messages and the core focus areas of the stakeholders and WOF’s fire awareness departments.
Aphiwe Sonjica from Percy Mdala High School said, “We would like to thank Working on Fire, the WCDMC and WCED for this debate as we feel we have empowered ourselves and future generations to come.
This has been a great experience and we have learnt a lot from this competition. I look forward to the next one and believe this project will grow even bigger.”
Said the WCDMC’s Nceba Gerald Kwela, “This Environmental School Debate is the second of its kind in the Western Cape, and aims to grow provincially, nationally and internationally.”
The Working on Fire programme is now in its 15th year of existence after having been established in 2003 and these firefighters are called out by conservation agencies, municipalities, landowners and fire authorities to attend to an average of 2 500 wildfires every year across the country. Debate winners: Best presentation: Knysna Secondary School Best content: Murry High School Overall winners: Concordia High School