Draft:Singapore Secondary Schools Debating Championships

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The Singapore Secondary Schools Debating Championships (SSSDC) is an annual English-language debating tournament held in Singapore for secondary schools in Singapore. It is the largest debate tournament in Singapore for secondary schools in terms of the number of participating teams and serves as the de facto national tournament for secondary school debate in Singapore.

2019 SSSDC Division 2 Finals between St. Margaret's Secondary School and the School of the Arts.

History

The SSSDC tournament was launched in 1999 and was organised and sponsored by the Julia Gabriel Centre under tournament director Mark Gabriel. Since 2006, the Debate Association (Singapore) has co-organised the tournament with Julia Gabriel Centre.

Many SSSDC alumni have moved onto debating at higher levels, including representing their nation at the World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC) and their universities at the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC).

Participants

The tournament is open for all secondary schools in Singapore, including all government, private and international schools. Student debaters’ ages range from 13 to 17 and each school is allowed to field a single team consisting of 5 members.

In 1999, the participating schools competed within 2 divisions (main and novice). As the tournament grew rapidly, an additional division was created in 2001 to cater for teams with less experience in debate. Thus, there are now three divisions in the tournament; with Division 3 featuring new or less experienced teams and Division 1 featuring the most experienced teams. As teams acquire more experience and wins, they are typically promoted to a higher division. Similarly, if a team in a higher division is not performing well, they will be demoted to the division below.

Debate Format

The SSSDC tournament uses a modified version of the World Schools Debating Championships format. The judging criteria and scoring parameters remain the same as the WSDC format but the timing structure has been amended in the following ways:

1.       Shortened main speeches (from 8 minutes to 6 minutes in Divisions 1 & 2 and 5 minutes in Division 3)

2.       Shortened reply speeches (from 4 minutes to 3 minutes)

3.       Inclusion of a 2-minute break before the reply speeches for the reserve speakers to confer with the reply speakers.

Tournament Structure

Preliminary phase

Teams first take part in 3 preliminary rounds of debate. During this phase, teams are provided with their debate motion 1 week before their debates. The debates are usually held on Friday evenings over 3 time slots (6:00 PM, 7:15 PM and 8:30 PM).

Teams are drawn against each other on a random basis in preliminary round 1. In preliminary rounds 2 and 3, they are matched up against other teams within their division with a similar win-loss record. The top 8 teams based on wins and cumulative speaker scores proceed onto the elimination phase.

Elimination phase

In the quarter-finals and semi-finals, the teams are given only 1 hour to prepare for their debates. During their preparation period, they are not allowed to confer with non-team members. They are also not permitted to access the Internet for research.

For the finals, the teams are once again given 1 week to prepare for their debates. In Division 1, the two losing semi-finalists also take part in a debate to decide on which team will be ranked 3^rd for the tournament.

Additionally, in recent years, the plate finals have been introduced as an additional round. Plate finals are held during on the same day and in the same location as the division 1 finals and consists of the 9th and 10th ranking team who did not manage to break into the quarter-finals.

Hosts & Judges

Each round of the SSSDC is hosted by a different school, with the host school volunteering to provide the debate rooms, chairpersons and timekeepers. Host schools are usually participants in the SSSDC. However, non-participating schools such as Anglo-Chinese Junior College have also hosted rounds of the SSSDC.

SSSDC debate matches are judged by volunteer adjudicators, usually comprising of SSSDC alumni and other members of the debate community in Singapore. Typically, there are 3 judges per debate in the preliminary rounds and quarterfinals, 5 judges per debate in the semi-finals and 7 judges per debate in the finals.

Past breaking teams and champions

Division 1

Year	Champion	Runners-up	3rd place	4th place	Quarter-finalists	Quarter-finalists	Quarter-finalists	Quarter-finalists
2023	United World College of South East Asia (Dover Campus)	Hua Yi Secondary School	Hwa Chong Institution	Catholic High School	Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road)	Raffles Institution	Raffles Girls School	C.H.I.J. St. Nicholas Girls’ School
2019	Nanyang Girls's High School	Raffles Institution	Hwa Chong Institution	Victoria School	Catholic High School	Cedar Girls' Secondary School	Raffles Girls' School	Singapore Chinese Girls' School
2018	Raffles Institution	Catholic High School	Hwa Chong Institution	Singapore Chinese Girls' School	Methodist Girls' School	Nanyang Girls's High School	National Junior College (Junior High)	Raffles Girls' School
2017	Nanyang Girls's High School	Raffles Institution	Hwa Chong Institution	Raffles Girls' School	Catholic High School	Cedar Girls' Secondary School	CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls' School	Paya Laber Methodist Girls' School
2016	Hwa Chong Institution	Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)	Raffles Girls' School	Nanyang Girls's High School	Methodist Girls' School	Raffles Institution	River Valley High School	St. Joseph's Institution
2015	United World College (SEA)	Raffles Girls' School	Raffles Institution	Hwa Chong Institution	Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)	Catholic High School	Paya Laber Methodist Girls' School	Singapore Chinese Girls' School
2014	Catholic High School	Raffles Institution	Singapore Chinese Girls' School	St. Joseph's Institution	Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)	CHIJ St. Joseph's Convent	Hwa Chong Institution	NUS High School
2013	Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)	Raffles Institution	Raffles Girls' School	Hwa Chong Institution	Catholic High School	Cedar Girls' Secondary School	CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls' School	Singapore Chinese Girls' School
2012	Raffles Institution	Hwa Chong Institution	Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)	Nanyang Girls's High School	CHIJ St. Joseph's Convent	Methodist Girls' School	Raffles Girls' School	United World College (SEA)
2011	Raffles Institution	National Junior College (Junior High)	Raffles Girls' School	St. Joseph's Institution International	Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)	CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls' School	Hwa Chong Institution	Methodist Girls' School
2010	Hwa Chong Institution	Raffles Institution	Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)	Catholic High School	Methodist Girls' School	Nanyang Girls's High School	Singapore Chinese Girls' School	St. Joseph's Institution
2009	Raffles Institution	Hwa Chong Institution	Methodist Girls' School	Singapore Chinese Girls' School	Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)	CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls' School	Nanyang Girls's High School	Raffles Girls' School
2008	Raffles Institution	Nanyang Girls's High School	National Junior College (Junior High)	Hwa Chong Institution	Catholic High School	CHIJ Secondary School (Toa Payoh)	Methodist Girls' School	United World College (SEA)

Division 2

Year	Champion	Runners-up	Semi-finalist	Semi-finalist	Quarter-finalists	Quarter-finalists	Quarter-finalists	Quarter-finalists
2019	St. Margaret's Secondary School	School of the Arts	Dunman High School	Tanglin Trust School	CHIJ Katong Convent	Hua Yi Secondary School	Maris Stella high School	Tanjong Katong Girls' School
2018	Kent Ridge Secondary School	Anglican High School	Tanglin Trust School	Xinmin Secondary School	CHIJ Katong Convent	Nan Hua High School	Singapore American School	St. Margaret's Secondary School
2017	St. Joseph's Institution International	Anglican High School	Kent Ridge Secondary School	Singapore American School	Anderson Secondary School	CHIJ Katong Convent	Maris Stella high School	St. Margaret's Secondary School
2016	Victoria School	CHIJ Katong Convent	Nan Hua High School	St. Joseph's Institution International	CHIJ St. Theresa's Convent	Kent Ridge Secondary School	Nan Chiau High School	Ngee Ann Secondary School
2015	Anglo-Chinese School (International)	Singapore American School	Crescent Girl's School	Tanjong Katong Girls' School	Anderson Secondary School	CHIJ Katong Convent	Ngee Ann Secondary School	St. Margaret's Secondary School
2014	Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road)	National Junior College (Junior High)	St. Andrew's Secondary School	Victoria School	Maris Stella high School	St. Anthony's Canossian Secondary School	St. Margaret's Secondary School	Tanjong Katong Girls' School
2013	Temasek Academy	National Junior College (Junior High)	Fairfield Methodist Secondary School	Victoria Junior College (IP)	Dunman High School	Singapore American School	Temasek Secondary School	Xinmin Secondary School
2012	NUS High School	River Valley High School	CHIJ St. Theresa's Convent	Temasek Academy	Fairfield Methodist Secondary School	Global Indian International School (Queenstown)	Temasek Secondary School	Victoria Junior College (IP)
2011	CHIJ St. Joseph's Convent	Singapore American School	Nan Hua High School	Temasek Academy	CHIJ St. Theresa's Convent	St. Anthony's Canossian Secondary School	Victoria Junior College (IP)	Victoria School
2010	Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road)	St. Anthony's Canossian Secondary School	Bowen Secondary School	Chung Cheng High School (Yishun)	Anglican High School	CHIJ St. Theresa's Convent	Global Indian International School (Queenstown)	Victoria School
2009	Global Indian International School (Queenstown)	Paya Laber Methodist Girls' School	Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road)	St. Margaret's Secondary School	Bowen Secondary School	Bukit Batok Secondary School	CHIJ St. Theresa's Convent	Nan Hua High School
2008	Fairfield Methodist Secondary School	St. Joseph's Institution International	Pioneer Secondary School	St. Margaret's Secondary School	Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road)	Bukit Batok Secondary School	St. Anthony's Canossian Secondary School	Unity Secondary School

Division 3

Year	Champion	Runners-up	Semi-finalist	Semi-finalist	Quarter-finalists	Quarter-finalists	Quarter-finalists	Quarter-finalists
2019	French School of Singapore	Madrasah Al-Ma'arif Al-Islamiah	Edgefield Secondary School	Jurong West Secondary School	Bedok South Secondary School	Greenridge Secondary School	Punggol Secondary School	Serangoon Secondary School
2018	Hua Yi Secondary School	School of the Arts	Bedok South Secondary School	Evergreen Secondary School	Jurong West Secondary School	Queenstown Secondary School	Serangoon Secondary School	Whitley Secondary School
2017	Meridian Secondary School	Tanjong Katong Secondary School	Hua Yi Secondary School	Yusof Ishak Secondary School	Zhenghua Seconary School	School of the Arts	Woodgrove Secondary School	Woodlands Secondary School
2016	Pasir Ris Crest Secondary School	St. Gabriel's Secondary School	Queenstown Secondary School	Zhonghua Secondary School	Coral Secondary School	Evergreen Secondary School	Tanjong Katong Secondary School	Yusof Ishak Secondary School
2015	Kent Ridge Secondary School	Anglican High School	Evergreen Secondary School	School of the Arts	Coral Secondary School	St. Gabriel's Secondary School	Loyang Secondary School	Queenstown Secondary School
2014	Chung Cheng High School (Yishun)	Bukit Batok Secondary School	Evergreen Secondary School	Tanjong Katong Secondary School	Loyang Secondary School	Madrasah Al-Ma'arif Al-Islamiah	Queenstown Secondary School	Serangoon Secondary School
2013	Tanjong Katong Girls' School	Serangoon Secondary School	Loyang Secondary School	Woodgrove Secondary School	Anglican High School	Dunman Secondary School	Madrasah Al-Ma'arif Al-Islamiah	Montfort Secondary School
2012	Jurong Secondary School	Orchid Park Secondary School	Anderson Secondary School	Anglo-Chinese School (International)	Montfort Secondary School	Queenstown Secondary School	St. Hilda's Secondary School	Tanjong Katong Secondary School
2011	Ngee Ann Secondary School	Westwood Secondary School	Bedok South Secondary School	Zhonghua Secondary School	Jurong Secondary School	Kent Ridge Secondary School	Pasir Ris Crest Secondary School	Tanjong Katong Secondary School
2010	CHIJ St. Joseph's Convent	Kent Ridge Secondary School	Anglo-Chinese School (International)	Bukit View Secondary School	Bedok South Secondary School	Ngee Ann Secondary School	Orchid Park Secondary School	Tanjong Katong Secondary School
2009	CHIJ St. Joseph's Convent	Jurong Secondary School	Orchid Park Secondary School	Tanjong Katong Secondary School	Dunman Secondary School	Fuhua Secondary School	Hua Yi Secondary School	Tanjong Katong Girls School
2008	Yishun Town Secondary School	Nan Chiau High School	Orchid Park Secondary School	Temasek Secondary School	Chung Cheng High School (Yishun)	Global Indian International School (East Coast)	Global Indian International School (Queenstown)	Tanjong Katong Girls School

Criticisms

Recycling of debate motions

The Singapore Secondary School Debating Championships have been criticised for the reuse of debate motions from past editions of the competition.

Quality of judging

The quality of judges has also been criticised. Given that SSSDC is the de facto national competition, some calls have been made for the competition's organisers to improve the quality of existing judges or hire better judges.