okay for me I feel like chinese dialect should not be offered as a mother tongue language because singapore is a multiracial country so with citizens and students from various ethic groups it will be regarded as unfair for dialects to be recognized as a subject


in schools when dialects of other language are not recognize so over here you are saying only chinese dialect should be offered uh like chinese chinese dialects lah and it's important for us to understand that the basis


in which mother tongue was introduce as a subject in singapore so the bilingual policy was launched by ministry of education in nineteen sixty six with one particular objective being to ease social tension between


the various ethnic groups in singapore by establishing the english language as a common language used for our communication while mother tongue was just a subject to uh follow allow students to


remain rooted, in their culture which their ancestors grew from and uh grew up in and develop for centuries, as a result through only introducing chinese dialects it could be easily interpreted interpreted as a act of racism and not respecting the culture of other ethnic groups in singapore such as the malays


indians and others like you have mentioned just now so there are actually a lot of dialects in their culture as well so an example can be uh or their which which is the indian dialect so


to quote a study done by the straits times in twenty sixteen more than sixty percent of singaporeans believe that racism is a prevalent issue in our society thus introducing only chinese dialects


as an additional subject in school be it for reasons such as to preserve culture or exposure to our youth towards, more avenues of communication would, worsen the situation which may not be ideal in singapore in today's singapore


(mmhmm)


what you've said is valid because personally I have done volunteering before and compared to my peers who don't know how to communicate in chinese dialects I feel like I am able to communicate and understand the elderlies better than my other peers


however as uh you have mentioned about stress I feel that picking up uh chinese dialect would be too challenging for our students as it could actually worsen the already excessive excessively high stress levels in our schools


to start off our discuss about the levels of stress and anxiety that exist in within our education system itself so a survey done by organization for economic cooperation and development OECD in twenty seventeen highlighted that seven sixty six percent of students


worldwide feel anxious about getting a bad grade at school as compared to a shocking eighty six percent here in singapore, our education system is undoubtedly one of the most competitive and toughest in the world and stress levels are already at the all time high from primary school to even institutes of higher learning


the subjects our students are being made to learn and master has said to be the toughest in the region and arguably within the even in the world, so adding chinese dialects into the list of subjects could actually cause our students even more stressed so there are a numerous reasons for this firstly increasing number of singaporeans particularly the youth


who are not being exposed to dialects from a young age err would also would cause this stress so from a study conducted by learn dialect dot SG found that forty percent of the chinese population in singapore were #hokkien#s


that the most amongst any other dialect groups however it's only found out that only seventeen percent of these people actually speak Hokkien at home and that number is expected to continue to decrease


so introducing such dialects as subject when our adolescents have not been entirely exposed would be actually difficult for them to learn and also add on to their stress levels so means they are not exposed to it they are not familiar with it so they


it they may find it hard to excel in it and extra work would be needed to work on the chinese dialects secondly languages are tough as subjects are uh as subjects in schools are taught with two purposes in mind


increasing the competency competency of students to speak, to both speak and write in that language so, err these are also two fundamental aspects of communication, however for almost all chinese dialects ranging from cantonese to to Teochew there is there is very infrequent usage of written dialects even amongst the seniors who have been using dialects since their days as students


so people were actually relate uh chinese dialects to only like a speaking language but not so, much of a written language so this adds a whole new dimension into uh learning for our students in school as their meet to pick up a different written language which they have never learned before


coupled with the fact that, there would be very few writers of these dialects in singapore would also further add on to their stress so that's why I feel like chinese dialects should not be offered as a mother tongue language


(mmhmm),


I think your point is valid but err like what you have mentioned about like spanish as a third language err I feel like these languages like japanese spanish they are actually popular language around the world like compared to chinese dialects where


not much people know like know about it and speak in it, so ya from a pragmatic stand point the learning of dialects err I feel can be regarded to be of very little value to the lives of all students and also to the society as a whole


personally speaking I have felt that many things I've learnt in my school days have added little or no value into my life like the learning of concepts like Pythagoras theorems to quadratic equations, all these equations informations formulas I feel like I was forced to pick up and cram into my mind as a youth and this information has never


came came back to be useful for me so this is a problem that many singapore uh many singaporean's students face so not being able to understand the need to learn them, for certain pieces of err to learn the certain pieces of information so when they are faced with err such err situation then this of course expected that the students will not enjoy their learning


so it may actually lead to like forceful methods of studying adding on to their stress so maybe to even study for that language they would, err go for methods like memorizing which is and regurgitating in exams which I feel is not beneficial to students and society as a whole so there are decreasing usage of


err the decreasing usage of dialects in singapore has, been increasing at an exponential rate so one reason one reason for this is because singapore government has push to push the ban of usage of such dialects such as Hokkien in singapore


in singapore chinese media from seventeen uh from nineteen seventy nine so err cause chinese dialects can be seen as a very informal language so as a result the dialects are not uh no longer used as prevalent in today's society


so learning these chinese dialects should err if they don't use such good, err it didn't, like significant benefits we should not introduce them as it would increase stress


part three debate topic three


so you mentioned that learning different people have different learning speeds right so I feel like I actually add on to that like different people have different learning speeds so if


I feel that if learning is taken place outside the classroom they may be potential they're a lot more potential err like, like distractions so one thing is the learning speed and a lot of distraction so I feel that is not as efficient so err onto my point I feel like err learning can range from enriching your knowledge


on a certain subject to emulating moral values I believe that learning in the classroom has more positive attributes as compared to learning outside of the classrooms because firstly the tendency of err


of having a lot of potential temptations like using a phone to like distract the like students to be distracted, and they they may like use their phone more like at a higher frequency so why is this so is because if learning takes place outside classroom there is a lack of supervision


so with no schools no classroom, no set timetable err available for learning to take place parents will still have to continue to work and may not have the time to watch over their children so if you are saying learning takes place best outside classroom parents I feel like parents who have them have to make the extra effort to


monitor their students uh their children's progress so uh in a classroom a teacher keeps an eye on everyone strives their best to keep the classroom conducive with zero distractions so there is a main person there teaching you and there is


of course a focus that student should be focusing at students would be highly distracted by all these devices and there will be no way for learning to take place well if it's outside the classroom furthermore being placed in the classroom setting where learning


where learning is taking place besides numerous peers uh besides numerous peers would would create a more conducive learning environment where everyone is motivated to learn together so everyone sit side by side what I am


what the person beside me is doing is what I am doing so it's like is like you know like unity that kind then err I feel like in a classroom doubts can be immediately clarified with the teacher in charge or even or even with the students around you


so giving rise to a more effective learning, uh ya more effective learning, and more efficient and a more enriching learning experience furthermore being placed in a learning setting around others would allow us to learn beyond what is in our textbooks so research have shown that the avenue in which most our soft skills


err such as teamwork and communication are learned actually best in classroom settings so as a result I feel that classroom setting is the best avenue for learning to occur firstly is because there is a main focus like the teacher


where students should be focusing on parents would not have to like waste uh have to spend actual effort to make sure that students are not distracted and also lastly like your friends are study together with you and like there's a motivation for


students to concentrate in the classroom setting better yups,


(mmhmm), so you have mentioned that classroom may be a mundane venue for learning will take place but for me personally like what I've personally experience is that my


err during my school time I actually have time allocated together with my form teachers so we actually we are we have like for example like during chinese new year we have task we have


we can like work together as a class to like decorate the classroom to make it like more vibrant and like during chinese new year there is also a competition uh held by my school where the most vibrant class boards in class would win like a award so this would actually motivate students to like


decorate their classroom and I feel like maybe classroom may not be a mundane venue after all so you also you have also mentioned about field trip uh for field trip I feel like okay I don't like as a as a like back in my school days I feel like


field trip is uh like when teachers give out the consent form for field trip it's like a sign for us like oh it's a day off from school we don't need study for that day so uh I feel is like a a bit, a bit misleading for a students like if you say learning take place best outside school classrooms but some students may actually feel like oh this field this trips are like a day off for me I I can switch off my brains I can a field trips is an opportunity for me to play with my friends that kind so it's a bit hard to like control this


part about like field trip cause most student would think like field trip oh is something like fun I don't need I'm not learning anything through the field trip it's just for fun so ya and my my next point is about the well-being of students the idea of


not allowing not allowing students to be in a classroom setting for learning, may cause a huge impact on themselves err cause not everyone have err fortunate background and many students and youths are exposed to domestic violence so they experience emotional mental and social damage that can affect their


development developmental growth so others may feel socially isolated and like unable to make friends easily at home if you do not if you don't have like classroom you don't learn inside a classroom so err


so not everyone have the opportunity to have like a very conducive learning environment at home so this can this is also shown like through this period of COVID nineteen where students are forced to err


do home based learning and I've seen research and studies saying that students some students they are not the fortunate type so they experience family violence and studying at home may be one of the worst


uh methods and thus I feel like learning is still best err conducted in the classroom, and if students are subjected to violence and abuse and err learning at home would not be a feasible solution in a long run


and classroom so I feel like classroom would still be the main, should still be the main learning venue for students


(mmhmm)


okay I agree with your point and you have mentioned about like youtube videos right I I definitely agree with that point because I personally I have experienced uh like teachers they're not able teach everything


err in the classroom so sometimes I even learn best from watching crash course videos on youtube and like it's it may be a more like interesting way for me to learn as well but however I feel that


uh learning best still best takes place inside the classroom because of character development because in if learning is takes err takes place in the classroom students will


it if it's if learning takes place outside of the classroom student would not be able to have would no would no longer have his peers or teachers where he can take as a role model so in like primary school I always see my teacher as something that I would


look up to and even one of childhood aspiration was to be a teacher because of how good my I still remember my p-one my p-one to p-two teacher was like a super nice person and she is firm but also gentle in a way


so for me my primary school aspiration was also to become a teacher because of her as my role model, so without any if learning is taken place outside of the classroom we would not I feel like the teacher as a role model is missing without any role models students can be negatively influenced by online influencers and also pick up many a lot of bad behaviors and habits


so err one just now you mentioned about like the also like online resources there are a lot of online resources or like youtube and all but err students may not be able to pick the right sources for the information


so I feel like learning is still best taken place inside the classroom, stop


part one debate topic one, I believe that schools should definitely consider subjective and non academic factors for admission for a very simple reason I believe that every student every child in singapore especially has a different sets of strength and weaknesses


so I believe that it was simply make sense for schools to actually consider the various skills sets that our student have beyond just that of achieving a good results and academic ability during examinations , the ministry of education in singapore has actually always promoted that one of the fundamental principles that it wants to strive to run on is to promote a holistic education uh experience for the youth and students in singapore


so to me like if we want to be holistic we have to go beyond just encouraging our students to study hard and perform well in our examinations we have to also recognize that different people have different interest and different skills , so I feel that through considering the non academic factors for admission we can cater to the various strength and weaknesses of our students and this would give rise to a more fair more balanced education system


so for example, uh many of our students actually have talents that cannot just simply be represented on by the grades on their test and exams scripts for example some might have talents in the sporting field some might have talents in the artistic field so for me it is time to that our education system recognizes that there could be more than one route for success in our education system


because, for me the purpose of the schools in singapore is to prepare our youth of adolescents for the working world for the real world if we were to just only solely consider academic factors for admissions into schools, wouldn't we actually just be creating a society of individual who might be talented academically they might be scholars but we lack the diversity that this other people from various other fields like sporting and arts bring to us


so for example in two thousand and four my research has shown that uh the then minister of education Ng-Chee-Meng launched the direct school admission program where school uh where students could actually rely on their extra curricular achievements to apply for a spot, in the school or institution of their choice and this program has actually yielded very good results for our youth and our students firstly it has reduced stress rates in our academic curriculum because it allows our youngsters to pursue what they're genuinely interested in


rather than just forcing them to hit the book and study hard for exams so for me since this initiative has already yielded very positive results for our society and for our youngsters we should continue to work or improving this system to allow our students to pursue their interest and what they're good in


and to gain admission to the institutions that they decide to entry into so yes I definitely feel that our schools in singapore should begin to consider non academic factors instead of solely focusing on examination results as a basis of admission


err okay I agree that our education has been really successful for the past few decades to really help our youngsters get a strong start in the real working world but I feel that there can be still a lot of improvements that can be made to further develop the system


so uh, another reason why I feel very strongly that our schools should, begin to consider non academic achievements non academic qualifications is because I feel that this would really help to balance out the blank field in our education system and also potentially make it a more fair one so once again I did my research and there was this site dialectic dot SG which actually highlighted


that more than seventy percent of parents in singapore find that sending their children for tuition and enrichment classes is a necessity in our country so to me that already paints a very strong picture cause our school while all our children and youth usually have access to go to schools we cannot say that


they everyone would have the same financial capabilities to afford going for these tuition and enrichment classes, which actually skew our actually it basically give an unfair disadvantage towards certain groups of students and our youngsters so it is clear to see at least to me that the well-off in singapore who are able to pull in a high income


who are of a higher income group they have a clear advantage over the poor because they have the ability to, they have the ability to send to finance their children's education through things like tuition classes and enrichment classes which would definitely have a strong effect in boosting their child's performance in an examination I mean if these classes were not that effective in boosting performances I don't think that they would be such a major part of our society up to today


and furthermore tuition fees in singapore's in singapore are not cheap at all certain prestigious tuition centres can go even beyond one thousand dollar a month, so for children who belong in a family pulling in a family income those are for lower income group how could we say that it would be possible for them to send their children to pursue such lessons for those who are not even able to put enough food on the table how can they afford to send their children for these classes


so to me these students are at an automatic disadvantage compared to their peers of a higher income group so should we only place academic achievements as a sole criteria for students to earn their way into schools to gain admissions into schools those from a low household income would definitely lose out and this would result in the disparity in our education system


so I believe that when it comes to education we really want to try to promote a fair a fair competition lah so by accepting students of who have achievements in non academic uh fields like sporting and arts it would really help to balance of this disparity


so uh I have example for example the in the primary school leaving examination PSLE if we have a student who's able to achieve a score of let say two hundred and forty but hiss family have financial capability to send him for hours, of tuition classes a week compared to a student with a PSLE score let's say two three nine just one point lower but this student does not have access to this avenue of learning I feel that it would be very unfair to deprive the letter on the spot to the school


just because of this challenging circumstances that he or she has faced so we should adopt a broader perspective when accepting our students into schools we should always keep in mind that ultimately the objective of our schools is to prepare our youths


our children our adolescents for the real world in the future and so it is important for us to consider subjective factors non academic factors that would allow our education system to be more fair and more balanced in years to come yup


okay I'll start off by talking about meritocracy because meritocracy is a, is a principle that's focus on basically those that work hard get the reward for it and those that do not work as hard do not get as much reward but I think it's very important to recognize that in the few of like when we talk about academics right some individuals are just naturally


more talented at studying hard for examination while some are not, so let's say we are talking about an individual who doesn't have this same accruement in academics he might study very very hard he might really stay up late every night put in the hours to memorize facts and prepare for examinations but ultimately compared to someone who might be more I'll say naturally talented


in academics and has the ability to go for tuition classes tuition class is a very important determining factor in my argument because I feel that if you can afford to go for this classes and have a tutor guide you through the process of studying compared to someone who on his own might not already have that same


level of academic, talent and has to put in the hour themselves even though you end up working hard you might not be able to compete with someone who has a tutor to guide them along so and secondly regarding how we have to make this a more fair system because like you said some people might err turn to corruption


I feel that our education system has always placed a very strong emphasis on transparency and basically they have a lot of checks to make sure that whatever , a student is submitting their portfolio is actually factually correct so I believe that this is not a very major problem and could very easily be solved through some administrative checks okay now I move on to like my last point on about why I feel that this is really


uh considering non academic achievement is really very important and it really revolves around diversity which I actually alluded to earlier on , so first of all like I said earlier on schools the purpose of schools is really to prepare to build up the next generation of singaporeans to enter the work force and diversity is really very crucial in this


so what if we only if we keep promoting this very strong culture of doing well in examinations we might end up with a society with who might very talented might be very books smart as some would say they might be talented in being able to memorize and prepare for exams , but they might lack the soft skills the which non academic sectors could provide in a better manner for example non academic areas like sports they help to develop teamwork they help to develop communication abilities and I'm sure many people would agree with me when I say that these skills


are more important in the work force and in the working world compared to just being able to memorize thousand of facts in a textbook, so for us to continue prospering as a society in the future and for our education system to be actually successful in what we set up to do it is very crucial that we


begin to open our eyes to the wider fact that just being book smart just being to excel in examinations it's not good enough to ensure the continue success of our society and that's why I really strongly feel that we have to go beyond just, looking at examination results and go and take a deeper look at what other talents and skills that our individuals our youth can offer and begin to consider this criteria in accepting them to institutions that they applied to yup


okay, I think that's quite valid


part two debate topic two okay I feel that chinese dialect should definitely be offered as a mother tongue language to our students in schools so why do I feel this way is for one very main simple reason chinese dialects have always been a part of singapore's culture from the very start


so dialects like Hokkien cantonese and Teochew when our ancestors our chinese ancestors migrated from china to our island here in south east asia they initially actually communicated in this dialects Hokkien cantonese Teochew and many others so this actually form the basis of how they


first communicated with each others in singapore and in fact this can reminiscence of this can still be seen in our society today when we go pass coffee shops hawkers centres and even at home when we speak to our grandparents, many of our grandparents still communicate using this dialects and in fact quite a substantial among of them are only capable and proficient in speaking in these dialects


so they will naturally regard it as a very crucial important part of their lives and culture so it is a known fact that the number of dialects speaker in singapore have been diminishing over the years so to me it is of utmost importance that this subjects begin to be offered to students in schools so that we can preserve the language and their culture


if we do not take action to combat this as soon as possible we would soon find that maybe in the few decades time this dialect would become an extinct language in singapore and a large part of our culture would have been eroded so for example we we all know that singapore is form by four main ethnic groups the chinese the malay the indians and the eurasians


so the eurasians initially when their ancestors migrated to singapore, they actually spoke proficiently in their dialects as well however over the years the speaking of their dialects began to decrease because less emphasis was placed on preserving this form of communication and this give at least has given rise to how their dialect in today society in singapore has become almost


extinct or endangered so if we do not take action to combat this we would find that maybe in thirty forty years the use of Hokkien and cantonese could no longer exist in our society and this damage would be irreversible and hence is paramount that we take action now


so uh because how how this whole situation actually started was, due to the bilingual policy launched by the MOE in the nineteen sixties whereby they wanted to establish english as a common form of communication of society and they promoted a mother tongue our mother tongue uh they promoted students to learn their mother tongue language like mandarin and so on


so there was never a chance given to our youngster to actually adequately pick up and learn this languages and I feel it is high time that, this uh we begin to offer this languages in our schools, such that they are at least able to pick up the fundamental and as a society we could slowly begin to increase the usage of these dialects and this would ensure that a large part of our culture could remain after all singapore is always a country that takes very


large pride in our rich culture and our history so if we were to lose this very crucial and important part of it I feel that it would really be a big loss for our society as a whole ya


okay I think the point you brought up is quite valid in the sense that because we are multi ethnic society so perhaps what we could do is either we could launched some programs for these students of other ethnic groups to also be able to pick up their dialects because from my understanding their dialects have also been used a lot less


in our society these days so perhaps we should also be putting some emphasis on trying to prevent their dialects from going extinct and offering so maybe offering dialects of all the different languages could help to solve this solve this problem but also I feel that


by offering chinese dialects as a subject in schools right should we allows students of other ethnic group to also learn and pick up this, dialect while it could be tougher for them in terms of how how quickly they can pick up the foundations of this forms of communication I feel that in a diverse society like ours if they could have better understanding of how people of other ethnic groups communicate it could also help us to foster a stronger society with perhaps


less racial tension and I think that would be very beneficial to our students, okay but moving on I feel that another reason why our school should really start to think about offering chinese dialects as a subject is because many students in our schools in singapore right they have they actually already learning third languages such as japanese


and spanish and so on so many of our students are actually very interested in the linguistic scene and by being able to pick up this other forms of languages they can not only improve their linguistic abilities but they can also improve their communication when they go abroad


so picking up a chinese dialect for me would also have the same impact as picking up a language like japanese, because there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of dialect speakers abroad in countries such as hong-kong which predominantly speaks cantonese taiwan which has a very large Hokkien population and china would which has a very good balance of the various chinese dialects speakers


so should since our students have already indicate many of our students have already indicated interest in learning these third languages like japanese I already mentioned right I feel that if we are able to at least give them the option of wanting to pick up a language err a dialect like Hokkien for example


it would really attract a lot of interest as well and many of our students would genuinely be interested in learning such a language apart from just improving their communication skills abroad I also thinking that since I mentioned earlier that so many of our senior citizens and elderly here in singapore still predominantly speak


dialects I feel that picking up uh allowing our students to learn this dialects could also improve communication with their grandparents who speak this languages and could go a long way in improving their relationships so especially since in recent years the singapore government has been trying to promote err three generation household


whereby so that would be the grandparents the parents and the children, so if we are able to allow our youngsters to start learning these dialects it would not only improve the communication between them and the grandparents but I feel it could also help to foster stronger ties because honestly some of the feedback that I heard around from my friends and so on is that


they find that it is very challenging for them to strike up a conversation with their grandparents at home which probably because of reasons such as they're not able to understand or comprehend what each party is saying because our youngsters of course most of our youngsters at least do not have a


thorough understanding of these dialects so since we want to go move forward into a society where we have three generations in one household at least being able to teach our students the foundation and how to at least communicate in basic dialects could really help to improve the relationship


or uh with their family members at home and also help to perhaps lower stress levels by building up stronger healthier relationships so yes I feel that it is still very important that we should offer chinese dialects to our students in schools yup


okay err so earlier on you mentioned that it will really add on the stress levels in our school's because this is not a language that our students are familiar with but actually I feel that that is not necessarily true because I've already mentioned that


students are willing to go the extra mile to learn languages like japanese and spanish with I'm sure in singapore that will be a lot less exposure to, as compared to our chinese dialects because after all a large majority of our elderly population still communicate in these dialects so I'm sure that from time to time our students will at least have some exposure to this form of communication


and furthermore actually some of these dialects right are actually actually some of our youth have more than sufficient exposure to this dialects for example through hong-kong dramas hong-kong dramas are one of the most popular forms of entertainment for singaporeans and most if not all of hong-kong dramas are actually


shot in the dialect of cantonese so with this level of exposure to the dialects I'm sure that compared to another language like spanish which is very infrequently spoken in singapore our youngster should have the ability to


uh pick up at least a foundation of this language at a relatively quicker pace as compared to certain third languages which our students have already uh taken up and another , another point I really want to stress on is that our uh for the chinese people at least their true mother tongue is not actually that of the mandarin language because like I've mentioned our ancestors predominantly spoke and communicated in their dialects and I also feel that


err for country like singapore right we really need to incorporate a greater level of diversity because singapore has thrived as a multi-ethnic society for decades and one of the ways we do this is by tapping onto the strengths of various ethnic groups in singapore


so if we are able to introduce the culture of dialects back into our society by teaching it to our students in our schools I'm sure that our society would actually improve as a whole by being able to at least learning the culture and how the


let me just quote an example ah for example when we learn chinese as a mother tongue language through the process of learning this language we actually manage to learn a lot about the culture and how this language actually came about, so I feel that if we were to teach our students the fundamentals of speaking in chinese dialects they would too able to learn


and perhaps incorporate some of this, the the positive points from the dialect culture add it into our society in singapore and we would be able to progress forward as a stronger healthier society so I feel that it is very crucial that our students continue to as not continue sorry our students are given at least the opportunity to pick up


such a dialect in our society ya


part three debate topic three, so I feel very strongly that learning actually takes place best outside the classroom rather than in the classroom so the first reason why I think that this is so is because


different student have very different styles and methods of learning so should we confine all our students with different styles and methods of learning to the common classroom environment it will limit them to one particular style of learning dictated by a teacher or educator


so it is a known fact that different people learn best in different ways be it visual auditory reading less writing and kinesthetic , unfortunately through our teachings in classroom set by the teacher we are limiting students to the methods that the teacher adopts in their teaching which in most cases just involve the teacher verbally regurgitating text and information from textbooks and other forms of


learning so for me this would definitely not be an optimal studying and learning experience for students who depend especially on alternative modes of learning such as writing and kinesthetic , on the other hand for when when students study outside the classroom it gives them the flexibility of adopting their preferred methods of studying and would allow them to pick up new information very efficiently


so once again it's a very known fact that stress levels among our singapore students are very very high so should we be able to improve the efficiency that they can pick up information while studying I'm sure it will go a long way in helping create a more pleasant studying environment for them


so furthermore within the classroom setting when the teacher is attending to a class of let's say thirty individuals the pace set by the teacher would not be optimal for all so some students who might be more academically inclined would find the pace of teaching too slow and hence the learning that takes place in the classroom for them could be regarded as inefficient


they could spent this time better in other areas to develop a more holistic life , however some other students also struggle to keep up with the pace set by the teacher and would end up falling behind in their learning allowing learning to occur outside the classroom such as in a luxury of homes libraries or other avenues would actually allow our students themselves


who know their own ability and pace of learning to study at their own comfortable pace and would maximize the outcome of learning for all students so this is why I feel very strongly that we shouldn't just confine out singapore youth and students who has such a different personality traits


to a classroom setting and instead allow them to explore what study methods should stand the best and allow them to adopt such methods in their daily lives after all one part of learning is learning about yourself and


through learning taking place outside the classroom I just feel it would be a stronger platform to allow our students to learn more about themselves what they are good at and this would just be a more beneficial outcome for our education system as a whole and for the next generation of singapore students


okay so uh you mentioned one of your points being the distractions could be very high outside a classroom setting , but I actually I would disagree with that because for me I feel that many distractions actually exist within the classroom itself like when you put many students let's say in primary school where's uh the children might not be very mature yet and might not understand the need for them to learn in the class


when we put so many of this individuals within the classroom setting yes we might reduce the distraction brought to them by their phones by their televisions and so on , but I'm sure from our own personal experience as student who have gone through schools in the past there is a much larger avenue of distraction in the form of your peers around you how many times have we talk to our friends beside us instead of focusing on the lesson and end up falling way behind what we have supposed to be learning


furthermore I I'm also sure with that we can remember many examples of students still continuing to used their phones in class behind the back of the teacher and so on so to me overall this create just a very inefficient studying method and a form of education because


, even when we are confining our students to the classroom setting how can we ensure that they're really focusing and giving their hundred percent in class okay and the second thing that I would like to talk about would be the stress levels I feel that singapore's education system is already such a stressful one


if we were to continue just confining our students to a classroom setting I feel it could create a very mundane err learning experience for them because students especially like I said earlier in primary school they might not really see the understand the purpose of putting them in a classroom setting


and ultimately this has a very negative connotation on their studying because they might be unhappy and this lead to stress and so on okay now moving on to my point so within a classroom I feel that students tend to learn information from solely their books and diagrams presented by the teachers


which for many students could be very difficult for them to fully understand grasp and picture the concepts that they are learning, so if we are bringing the learning experience out of the classroom we can tag onto so much more resources that is just not possible to be used within the classroom such as field trips learning journeys or even leveraging on interactive technology


this would grant students the opportunity to have a much more hands-on learning experience which by scientific research has already been proven to enhance the retention of information by students, so apart from so the the term learning right I feel that apart from just considering learning in a academic context we also have to understand that there's a lot more to learn which can be better done in the outside setting outside the classroom


so I feel that constraining our students in the classroom setting actually reduces the opportunities that students have to mingle around and interact with other individuals let's just consider the school timetable for example in many many schools we can see that students are constraint within their schools from as early as seven in the morning all the way until


potentially four PM or even five PM also whatever news are we providing for our youngsters to interact with others and develop soft skills that potentially within a classroom setting in such a fixed small area would not be


as efficient and effective so by exiting the classroom settings into the real world I believe that students could be exposed to so much more which will really enhance their learning as compared to just being exposed to the same set of students and teachers that they see on a daily basis, so I believe that soft skills like communication and teamwork abilities which are life skills arguably more important than any academic knowledge that you can pick up can be better developed in the students' free time outside the classroom rather than inside a fixed constraint setting ya


okay while your point about domestic violence is definitely uh very accurate I feel that now nowadays especially in singapore when we talk about outside the classroom it doesn't mean that our student have to be constraint to their homes there's many community facilities which can actually facilitate a further learning like for example we have


so many libraries in singapore many of our community centres have learning rooms and so on so forth so I believe that it is actually very accessible and very easy for our students to make use of these facilities for their learning , and if they are facing domestic violence at home they can try to avoid the situation by going to one of this places so I think the key point about my argument is that is not to


make our students study at home is to give them the flexibility of deciding which form uh what form of studying best suits them and then they can tailor their studying style by err identifying perhaps the best venue for their learning to take place


okay then now moving on to my point so firstly I would like to say that I feel that development of the internet especially in the last two or three decades has been so substantial that there's plentiful resources available on the internet, and sometimes learning through such methods could give rise to informative and better learning as compared to in the classroom setting so what do I mean by this as I mentioned earlier when there's a teacher in a classroom teaching often the teacher sets the pace of how the lesson goes


so if we were to leverage on this online resources instead let say videos on youtube we could allow our students to actually rewind the video as and when they want such that they can fully grasp the concept and they are not instead set by the teacher in the classroom


which I feel will lead to a much more effective and efficient form of studying, and my second point is that I feel that once again studying let's say at home or in venues close to their homes would really increase the free time and flexibility in their studying which could help to lower stress levels


so why do I say that I I feel because personally I've experience how much time it takes for me to travel to and from school I could take more than one hour to get to school more than one hour to get back from school and this is a lot of time wasted in travelling and at, like I mentioned earlier with how the school curriculum is set up a lot of times schools start as early as seven and ends at as late as late as four or five and when things like this happen we are basically forcing our students to travel mostly in public transport at peak hours which could be regarded as very


uncomfortable experience if you have to repeat it on a daily basis so by taking studying out of the classroom and putting it in the hands of the students to decide when and more importantly where they choose to uh do their studying in, it would free up a lot of time in the schedules of our students which they can use for rest recreation relaxation anything that they want to relax their mind which would firstly help to reduce stress level secondly help to create a much happier


individual in our society and thirdly I feel helps to enhance the quality of our education system so yes I feel it is very important that we begin to consider the possibility of taking learning out of the classroom


part one debate topic one, uh so I'll be starting with the proposition so this topic is sex work should be legal so I'll be uh presenting for sex work should be legal so in my first point


I would define sex work as a consensual exchange between two adults, so sex work should be legal because it when we legalise it it allows protection to take place research shows that across europe countries criminalisation make sex workers more vulnerable to violence


including rape assault and murder but attackers who see sex workers as easy targets because they are stigmatised and are likely to receive help from the police criminalisation may also force sex workers


to work in unsafe locations , to avoid the police , UN aids public health expert sex workers organisations and other human right organisations have have found that criminalisation of sex work also has a negative effect on sex worker's right to help in one example


human right was found in a twenty twelve report sex worker evicts condom as evidence of prostitution in four US cities that police and prosecutors used a sex worker possession of condom as evidence to support prostitution


chargers the practice left sex workers reluctant to carry condom of fear of arrest forcing them to engage in sex without protection and putting them at higher risk of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases


this view is based on a belief that there were always be man who pay for sex and woman who sell it , decriminalising or in all aspect of prostitution including brothel ole and sex buying will according to the argument make life safer for these woman and also make it easier to rule out abuse


they also helps to protect the sex worker's income so those in favour of decriminalisation including many labourers and some families consider prostitution to be worked and argue that sex workers can be protected by union and help and safety measures


decriminalising , the selling of sex so that only buyers are breaking the law mean prostitutes themselves are not penalised a reason why many jurisdictions have it accept to decriminalise sex work in recent years this argument has made big advances


in two thousands the Netherlands made formal what had already been acceptable for some years and lifted the ban on brothels in effect legalising the sex trip two years later the new Zealand government passed by one vote the new zealand prostitution reformed eh


decriminalise strip these prostitution and brothel keeping hence this allows sex workers to have income


uh okay so now I'll be presenting my second proposition which is that legalising sex work can prevent underground market activities and can translate to greater economic benefits to sex workers as well as the country


so as per two thousand fourteen statistics a strip prostitute in tailor may make as little as five dollars per sex aid , but pimps can take in thirty three thousand a week in Atlanta where the sex business brings in an estimated two hundred and ninety million per year is not nearly as lucrative as in Denver where prostitution


and other elements of an underground trade are worth about forty million, from this we can see the disparity in the allocation of earning within the sex work industry with many prostitutes being exploited for their work


, thailand is the world's largest sex work industry and it brings to the country a whopping US six point four billion a year in revenue and sex workers create roughly four to ten percent of the kingdom's gross domestic product


by allowing sex work to be illegal, it will prevent the country economy from being boosted and sex workers will not be allowed to earn that income hence is important for sex work to be legalised so in less especially in less well off stations so that it can help with the country economy growth


and prevent sex workers from being exploited


the nordic model appeals to some politicians as a compromise that allows them to condemn bias of sex but not people they see as having being forced to sell sex but the nordic model actually has a devastating impact


of people who sell sex to earn a living, because it's good is to end sex work it may say harder for sex worker to find safe places to work unionise work together and support and protect one another allocate for their rights or even open a bank account for their business


is stigmatises and marginalises sex workers and leaves them vulnerable to violence and abuse by police as their work and their kind are still criminalised


uh I feel that !oi! sorry why I say something I feel that uh uh from our argument the benefits and the cause of legalising sex work are prevalent and


but like what jamie said it's true that we need to listen, to what the sex community has to say sex workers community has to say because in many countries this problem is still not being recognised so only countries such as thailand are able to recognise this and bring about


legalisation of sex workers , uh this should be uh issue that everybody should discuss about it in different countries, and this is the problem as we don't talk about whether this should be legalised


sex worker's work is equally as important as others as some of them see as uh will I mean as like a career so like they may come from other countries to come over unable to find


uh legal job hence they have to go towards this direction hence the government should in different countries should seriously take this into consideration for example in singapore this is not really talk about this issue is not really talk about


and sex workers are seen as low class and not legal so uh usually when they try to speak up as well there is a stigmatisation hence we really need to open up and listen to what the sex workers community have to say from


different countries especially more close up countries like singapore ya


part two debate topic two uh so this topic is that charity work should be compulsory as I'm the proposition I'll be discussing that charity work should be indeed made compulsory


so firstly I would like to say that doing charity work we just awareness among people schools enforcing compulsory volunteering, is an example you know community which will help raise awareness schools of different levels in singapore have implemented compulsory charity work as graduation requirements


for example singapore management university has made it a requirement for its students to complete eighty hours of community service in order to graduate since the university opened in two thousand and the service is not graded


schools such as secondary schools also allow uh also make it compulsory for us community involvement project hours to be completed in order to get the bonus two points


this allows students to be aware of what's happening around them , the implementation of charity work by schools would be an attempt to show students that getting a good education is not only essential but helping others in our society is important as well


besides schools corporate social responsibility is also prevalent corporate social responsibility is a self-regulating business model that helps a company be socially accountable to itself


its stakeholders and the public by practicing corporate social responsibility also called corporate citizenship companies can be conscious of the kind of impact they are having on all aspects on society including economic


social and environmental for example since twenty twelve there has been approached for singaporean law from systemic pro bono compulsory for that associates , this provide an avenue for busy working adults to contribute to the community as well this is good as not as not everyone in singapore is well off and there maybe struggling families which require it


hence this allows for company to help out when they can , being and this helps them to be aware of the difficulties faced by various families not everyone is aware of or has the opportunity to be exposed to the very needs within our community so


there is a role to play in providing some form of framework to facilitate and support the process cultivating this volunteering spirit from young would allow students to be aware of the difficulties faced by those who are less fortunate


this allows students to volunteer most of their time and give back to society if this was never made compulsory some will have never look into it much less found their passion in it people these days are only concern with what they receive what they get


but never what they can't give, charity work is good overall in providing promoting this mindset and it may make our society a better place to live in , a good anecdote would be how many students would do homework if we didn't require it I don't think a lot of kids will read all the books and do their assignments


we think is up to the professionals to decide what is important to learn and to do that you have to have them and experience it hence this forms of parallel to what I mentioned about charity work if it is not implemented people may not actually take out the time out to do it


hence is important to make this compulsory so that everyone is aware of the difficulties faced by many around us without doing charity work made compulsory we would be ignorant to what's happening around us and thus unable to offer the help that will be could be giving


uh okay so my second proposition is that even in someone may not start up being genuine it can be cultivated with more exposure during this compulsory volunteer sessions


this is essential in our community doing charity work helps those in need and allows people to give back to society especially in hectic bustling expensive cities


such as singapore less people have the time for charity work and social workers cannot bear the brunt on their own there are multitude of benefits that volunteerism can bring about not only to the economy but also to individuals


from the office of national statistic research which is based on around two billion volunteer hours estimated that the value of volunteering was worth about, twenty three billion pounds in twenty fourteen that's equivalent to one point three percent of the gross domestic product but this reflects only one part of the value taking into account the wider societal benefits


the magnitude are consider being larger, other efforts to measure the value of volunteering have focused on the private benefits to volunteers whereas survey suggests that participants derived the following benefits from volunteering including


enjoyment enhanced self-esteem personal development occupational experience reduce stress improve health and education and learning new skills for employers


volunteering by employees is increasingly recognised as a potential way to develop broader skills as well as contributing to the community with corporate benefits including improve staff retention and motivation


thus , conducting charity work will allow employees and employers to benefit well and contribute well back to their workplace, if we look at the overall welfare that volunteering creates we can see that making charity work compulsory creates a better happier society


as it impose individual as a whole and allows them to contribute back even in their busy schedules


part three debate topic three, so I'll first be discussing about the death penalty


so for my part I will be arguing that the death penalty should be abolished firstly death penalty does not act as an effective deterrent due to virtual crime rates remaining high


, the main goal of the death penalty is to deter heinous crimes however the statistics published seems to prove otherwise for example in the US death penalty is legal in twenty out of the twenty five states with the highest crime rate


if the death penalty was effective in helping to decrease the crime rates the statistics would demonstrate that states with the death penalty would have lower crime rates, hence this shows that the statistics seem to show otherwise contradicting the claim that the death penalty help to deter heinous crimes


this thus proves the death penalty ineffectiveness and thus it should be abolished, it seems that countries who abolished the death penalty had a positive impact on the country's crime rates for example since abolishing the death penalty in nineteen seventy six canada's murder rate


has steadily declined and as of twenty sixteen was at its lowest since nineteen sixty six, since canada stopped executing the murder rate has dropped by forty four percent which is extremely high


during the last twenty years the homicide rates in states with the death penalty has been forty eight percent hundred and one percent higher than in states without the death penalty , thus these all show that even though the death penalty was put in place to deter


major crimes from occurring this seems to not have the effect that it was intended and having an opposite effect instead with a greater and more positive impact on those countries which chose to


abolish the death penalty thus this shows that the death penalty being abolished seems to be better and thus it should be abolished, the death penalty isn't a viable form of death crime control as well if severe punishment can deter crime then permanent imprisonment is severe enough to deter any rational person for committing a violent crime


, this thus shows that, uh this thus means that they can replace the death penalty with very severe punishments and it will be equally as death for the criminals and they will thus be with receiving the punishment which they deserve


evidence shows that the death penalty is no more effective than imprisonment in deterring murder and that it maybe even an incitement to criminal violence if this is the case we should thus shows imprisonment


over the death penalty as the death penalty might have might not have the intended effects which it was put in place to do thus the death penalty should be abolished as it's unable to act as a deterrence


against heinous crime in fact uh even inciting more violence and it could result in worst crime and in thus resulted in worst crime rates


okay so now I will be talking about my second point which is that, the death penalty implementation of the death penalty results in criminal's value being discriminated


the foundations of our system of punishment must be based on the optimistic assumption that we are being skippable of improvement where hope is the essential prerequisite to re-consult of criminal back to society


or else studying crime become an obsolete discipline that survives only to maintain a prison, punishments for criminal should then be used as a means to realise this reconciliatory process so as to rehabilitate criminal back to society


the constraint of this process should treat criminal justly whilst being respectful of the autonomy however the death penalty fails to achieve this, so the existence of the death penalty would be discriminating criminal's value with a prejudice system


sentencing a criminal to death is to acknowledge that their identity is solely encapsulated by the criminal act, condemning and perceiving them as irreconcilable, this process measures death value as a human being with positive traits resulting an innately immoral and unjust system the legal process fails to recognise individuals as capable of change


thereby denying them their rights to realise atonement, the death penalty signals the affirmation of an individual's total criminality permanently antagonising the criminal from the social order however if we deny the right to improvement for those be it learn it


then we have to question its applicability to the rest of society, moreover the death penalty dehumanises a criminal by infringing on the categorical imperative thus violating the criminal's dignity by sentencing a criminal to death the state effectively prioritises itself


abut the criminal by using the criminal's lives as a means to an end of achieving state goals the state ignores the moral agency of a criminal denying them of their dignity and consequently


their intrinsic worth hence from this arguments it can be seen that when the criminal commits the heinous crimes they're not given an opportunity for equal for equal for ah equal punishment so


that they can be treated justly they're being discriminated and their punishment even though punishment should be used to to help them to come back to society and not re-commit this crimes


however by implementing the death penalty is saying that the criminals are not worthy of changing and that they should be punished permanently for what they have done wrong and thus this prevents them from


uh making a change for the better giving them as irreconcilable


ya, okay


part one debate topic one


, I am jamie and I'll be presenting on the proposition uh uh sorry in a opposition against phoebe's uh proposition, so phoebe you shared that uh first in your first point that legalisation equals to protection


in which you said that uh if we illegalise sex work there will be better health for sex workers and that it will also protect sex worker's income, however I propose that this is instead the opposite


sex work legalising sex work may actually perpetuate poor mental health, and it would it might also cause these sex worker's financial instability, I'd propose that even in the phase of making just buying sex illegal sex workers still have to take risk


so firstly you mentioned that sex work is a consensual exchange between two adults but how did you separate consensual and unconsensual or potentially violent and dangerous from a sex work, it is difficult especially for the law to separate the two and often if one party decides to press chargers the line can be blood to shoot down their argument


prostitution may actually inherently be abusive and it is a cause and consequence of women inequality, there is a need for the government to implement additional measures to ensure that mental health of sex workers


is protected since the environment that many sex workers work in maybe actually detrimental and negative, that's legalisation truly gives sex worker's right, in an example that I've read about in Nevada where brothels are legal a researchers interviewed a brothel earner who was painting out a severely learning disable young woman who has been sold to the brothel by her boyfriend's father


the fact that the brothel had this young woman sold was legally sanction and seen as a business no different from a restaurant, and this man that the paint was able to present himself as doing her employee a favour by giving her a job


in the face of going support for legalisation of self works sex work critics often worry about ignorance on of legalisations through consequences, studies show that most female sex workers enter into prostitution out of necessity and not out of personal choice


you might wonder whether continued criminalisation that keep workers check is justifiable when we could instead focus on helping sex workers escape prostitution, licensing or some other certifications of sex work that add to their resume could be conventionally considered a possible blot on their record


secondly phoebe you mentioned that legalisation of sex work might help the income and financial stability of sex workers, however sex work is still a fairly unorganised sector with many women operating from their homes


legalisation will actually push many workers outdoors and further stigma would soon follow, some neighbours may forbid sex workers from living nearby, those sex workers through reticent to come forward would also be excluded from the protection of labour law under a legalisation's team


we have to recognise that the decision to criminalise or legalise sex work comes with de-seated controversy, in a social and cultural context that make sex a taboo legalisation of sex work is almost bless from us


this taboo further thrives on lingering homophobia and trans phobia which is prevalent today in certain communities and cultures


err phoebe you mentioned that legalising sex work would ah prevent underground market activities and can translate to greater economic benefits to sex workers as well as the country, however I believed that there is a risk that legalisation might increase human trafficking


greater legitimacy for sex work could lead few and fewer the sectors economy yet sex workers would likely not benefit for such foe, most sex trafficking networks operate in a shadow economy and the profits are concentrated beyond the sex worker's reach


we should be mindful that legalisation alone would not in itself transfer profit to lower riches, on average countries with legalise prostitution report a greater incidence of human trafficking inflows


criminalisation of prostitution in sweden resulted in a shrinking of the prostitution market and the decline of human trafficking inflows, cross country comparison of sweden with denmark where prostitution is decriminalised and germany where there is an expanded legalisation of prostitution are consistent with the quantitative analysis


showing that trafficking inflows decrease with criminalisation and increase with in legalisation, increased human trafficking has negative implications on international security and global health


for example in phoebe 's uh example of thailand as the world's largest sex industry, thailand is not although thailand is not a state that legalises sex work it is still significant at is as it is the largest sex work industry in the world


this ties in with the fact that Thailand has a serious human trafficking problem with it having rescued a record of one thousand eight hundred and seven victims of human trafficking last year, according to data that campaigners have released and said that concerns about the nation's ability to support survivals


the number of victims of human trafficking has sought from six hundred and twenty two in two thousand and eight while the previous high was nine hundred and eighty two in two thousand and fifteen the government data showed, about sixty percent of those rescued in two thousand and eight were women and most were labour traffic


nearly three quarters of them would permits migrants bound from neighbouring malaysia, I'm surprisingly thailand has one of the highest HIV prevalences in asia and the pacific accounting from nine percent of the region's total population of people living with HIV


because many involved are illegal traffic sex workers they do not get the legal and medical help needed, as such I propose that there is actually a risk that legalisation might increase human trafficking and dangerous for sex workers


I however feel that there are possible consensus that we can come to, for example I think narrowing sex work to prostitution narrows the debate the term sex work often include pornographers strippers themes et cetera this broadens the argument and provides less area of consensus


the nordic model first introduce in sweden makes buying sex illegal but that's not prosecute the seller, AKA the sex worker, proponents of the nordic model see prostitution as inherently harmful and worse


they aim to end sex work by killing the demand for transactional sex, this agreement between organisations seeking full decriminalisation of sex work and groups supporting the nordic model have often been a contentious issue within the women's rights community in many countries and globally


I think that although it is important err although there are differences between us it is important to listen we can both agree that it is important to listen to voices coming from within this community


as non sex workers we might not know the true, uh troubles that they face, and researchers can only do can only present as much data as they can observe, it is non other to have input from the community itself and for sex workers to come out to be able to speak about their issues without any without facing any judgement


as such uh unions such as, the organisation in spain , the organisation of sex workers in spain or the Decrimnow campaign in britain are often uh ya imperative in researchers and err academics who study about whether legalisation of sex work should take place


sex work legalisation is more than a mere legal debate as it affects sex worker's health, it is sex workers are the core of its issue and that individual concerns and priorities should be


should be made heard, at this time legalisation perhaps require the emergence of a consensus in the community more than a government dictate, as much as we can speak about


as much as we can speak about uh whether we should decriminalise or criminalise sex work, we should often we should often uh hear directly from the sex workers instead of uh blindly arguing our issue as such I think that it is imperative that many countries have


uh many countries played try to play down the taboo that comes with sex and sex work there needs to be uh open debate and there needs to be more openness uh regarding sex work and sex


in general, I think this would be definitely the first step that we all should take err in understanding the needs of the sex work community more


feed, I know


part two debate topic two


phoebe you mentioned that doing charity work raises awareness and it is prevalent especially in our community amongst schools not only schools but also workplaces, you mentioned that there was there is compulsory volunteering schemes in schools that will be graded and there is also a component in many workplaces called corporate social responsibility where many adults have to


as part of their work hours contribute back to society, you also mentioned that uh because not everyone is aware of or has the opportunity to expose to the very needs within our community there is a need for push using compulsory volunteer or charity work


you mentioned that cultivating this volunteering spirit from young is imperative and that it is a good head start for many uh to start contributing back to the to their society, you also mentioned that no one would do it no one would contribute in in the form of charity work if it was not made compulsory


to this I want to rebut by saying that concerns with there are concerns with there are concerns with sincerity of such charity work, by making charity work compulsory there actually lacks a sincerity or heart felt


or heart felt emotions involved in this charity work, for example uh the existence of compulsory charity work as you mentioned in singapore educational institutions, I've follows for example in two thousand and thirteen all second year law students from the national university of singapore and singapore management university have to perform twenty hours of pro bono work


which is not graded, uh for SMU law students however this accounts for part of the eighty hour requirement to graduate from university, uh in uni SIM SIM university


there are also projects to help needy groups after the university roll up full time undergraduate programme in two thousand and four, students are then given one out of three pending grades


for Ngee-Ann Poly one reason for grading community projects is that assessing students helps them reflect on whether their projects have met the needs or the beneficiaries what rather than just going through the motion


however I believe that this move is to be criticised, the threat of a failing grade is counter-intuitive to the objective of in calculating civic-mindedness, kindness should not be graded but appreciated for what it is


we should not be promoting the idea that every action we has has to be calculated and remunerated, for example you mentioned that not everyone uh if you mentioned that anecdote of that students uh will not do their homework if it was not made compulsory


are we however down playing the fact that there are many kinder and warmhearted individuals in society who give back to society with the intention with the sole intention of doing good, they are not looking these individuals many of which


might even be might even have uh do this as their job professionally like such as social workers uh they're not out there to, gain a profit out of this job they're not out there to receive any great in return but yet they try their best to bring good to society and to contribute back in the form of charity work


are we down in by saying that no one will give back to society if it was not made compulsory we are instead down playing the good the goodness of these people and


the sincerity of those people's uh actions, in, in actual fact we have actually seen a move amongst secondary schools in singapore, previously a minimum number of hours was set such as such that a student o-level score would improve if he or she has done enough charity work


I believe phoebe you have mentioned that in your argument, charity work was indeed made compulsory for every student since nineteen ninety seven, however it has been recently changed such that pre-treasury or JC schools now


have no requirement for voluntarism at all, many have recognised the impact that grading charity work has to our students, in this young and intuitive minds there is no need for the education system to reprimand them in the form or to penalise them in the form of grades


uh for not showing kindness, kindness should be from the heart and not out of compulsory or mandatory practices, as such I feel that, by making charity work compulsory there is indeed concerns with sincerity and heartfeltness


phoebe you mentioned that even in someone may not start up being genuine, charity work can cultivate this sincerity with more exposure during compulsory volunteer sessions


and you also mentioned that doing charity work uh can free up the work of social workers and can be beneficial for society, however I would like to post the question can voluntarism create something similar to white saviour complex


let's take voluntourism for a an example the nobel traveller who pays the privilege who pays for the privilege of existing as such such institutions are rarely qualified to do so


it is not uncommon that we see many many white people going to less privilege countries to volunteer in schools or to build houses, frequently


their their fresh school leavers gaining life experience on a gap year, and this half baked humanitarian have later to offer but unskilled labour, for example a newspaper express it rather eloquently there are few things more cringe worthy than watching twenty British school girls trying to build a well under the scouting net policy


I assert that that experience is more beneficial for the visitors returns from their oversea immersion in hardship and suffering feeling like a person that is better and more altruistic, as it had mentioned in the proposition these are the private benefits to volunteers


but it seems the true reason for charity work, should charity work be only should the value of charity work be be based even on the private benefits that it gives to someone, the need for voluntarism not only has to come from the heart but also for volunteers who see eye to eye with the blessed privilege that they are helping


for example in hong kong, , they received every year a huge number of applications from students wanting to organise trips to teach english in provinces such as yunnan and guangxi


but this is completely irrelevant to the people's needs, the students teach english simply because it is something they know how to do, society needs to reflect on the purpose of sending students on such missions


if we send students overseas to cultivate a passion for the less fortunate and become better people the projects are a complete failure because they're just exploiting the people they're supposed to be helping


many people might say that the volunteers are doing it out of good will these volunteers are actually passionate and would sincerely like to make a contribution but because they just may perhaps


lack a knowledge, of how they can help and what needs to be done to help these people in need, in in the end they maybe simply entertaining themselves rather than helping the children


this is actually prevalent not only in hong kong but in many other societies around us, for example in singapore where is a where where everyone works in a fast fast pace and bustling pace


many who might have to do compulsory charity work , may come out doing may come out feeling like they have done something good but in actual fact they haven't actually help the people at all, I have heard stories about workers who had done pro bono work


and because they have not been paid and it is after their work hours they are not doing they are not on their best behaviour and they, do not speak eye to eye with these less privileged people


you can visibly see them taking on, and agitated to novice, and you can see them, uh throwing around their power just because pro bono work might make them feel like they are above someone else and that they are there to help


someone else making them in a position higher than that than the other, many of these I have heard that many of these , less privileged walk out feeling like they have not achieve anything out of the session and


they, often feel more distressed distressed and upset than they usually are, I believed that for charity work and sincerity to come together there has to be discussion


more people should speak out on such issues and the more we hear and familiarise ourselves with the correct concept of volunteering the more people would hover acceptable and desirable perspectives toward voluntarism, there is a organization called ISAAC lead by the youth


which has done work to promote sincere charity projects, they organise community projects that target as specific goal and assign new student volunteers to join coordinated projects in the group's network


exchange participants work in the multicultural environment where services are organised to serve genuine problems in the targeted community, before we send these students into the field this dismiss any notion that they are there only to help more importantly we should recognise that they are there to learn and the contributions they can make in the reality is really small


part three debate topic three


you mentioned in the proposition that the death penalty does not act as a effective deterrent due to major crimes remaining high, you have uh stated the statistics that prove otherwise


and shown that it seems that country to abolish the death penalty had a positive impact on the country's crime rates instead, you also mentioned that the death penalty isn't a viable form of crime control


this is because it might actually insight violence and crime instead, and should and hence should be abolished, however I propose that crime statistics may actually be inaccurate


the statistics you have quoted, might actually be inaccurate and that death penalty might actually prevent major crimes from occurring, measuring crime is harder than it sounds, the measurement the department of justice approaches the problem in two ways


the FBI's uniform crime reporting programme solicits data from about twenty thousand law enforcement agencies around the country, simultaneously the bureau of justice statistics national crime victimisation survey interviewed about one one hundred fifty thousand nationally representative citizens


asking them whether they have been victims of a crime, a problem is that there is no consensus or what constitute as a crime, this is also for major crimes worthy of the death penalty


that could actually be a fall in heinous crimes rates due to the change of what constitute as heinous crimes over the years, as such there may actually be inaccurate and inaccurate representation of the data


in addition, you mentioned that the death penalty isn't a viable form of crime control, to this I propose that the government has the role to enforce strict measures to prevent the occurrence of crimes


prison terms substitute the death penalty and in order to prevent re-offences the government has the duty to ensure that prison terms are as effective as punishments


there is little evidence that prison reduce recidivism, or the tendency of a convicted criminal to re-offend, and at least some evidence to suggest that they have a criminogenic effect


as such your claim that the death penalty might insight crime and more violent might actually be inaccurate


it is up to the government to enforce uh additional measures to ensure that the death penalty, would continue to be an effective deterrence to crime, this would, as a combination of the government uh it the governments


uh additional measures and the death penalty this would be a more effective and, powerful control to prevent crimes from happening


you mentioned that , in as a substitute for death the death penalty uh life long ~prisonment imprisonment is a good substitute, however uh in life long imprisonment can actually


uh it subjects to many changes throughout the term of imprisonment, for example bail, there could be a bail that uh, that has been enforced such that uh it might allow ex convict to


shorten their term of imprisonment, the death penalty is a more, uh frightening and hence effective uh way of deterring crimes


as such the death penalty is essential for the deterrence of crime


you mentioned that by imposing the death penalty criminal's value are discriminated, and by doing so the value of the criminal's lives


us I'm not seeing for its true value, we violate the criminal's dignity by associating the crime with, how they are as a person


and hence this ignores the moral agency of a criminal, however I believe that the death penalty as a form of punishment assumes instead equality within criminals by consistently administering punishments proportionate this the severity of crime


, for example, we can see that society has a responsibility to impose retributive justice proportionate to the gravity of the crime


according to Immanuel kant the law of universality dictates that when a criminal of rational agency commits a heinous crime such as murder their judgement decrease his acceptance of the behaviour


hence the state nearly follows that the criminal has its decided to deem at that as a settle behaviour, in allowing an individual to decide how they're being treated the state the state treats criminals as rational agents


hence assuming equality instead of inequality amongst people and giving them the freedom to determine their treatment, if they commit a crime they will be punished, if they see the punishment and choose not to


commit a crime then they escape, whatever penalty might face them, it is also vital that the punishment imposed is proportionate to the moral gravity of a crime as you have stated earlier


the states moral authority to punish is founded upon this, as such many governments and jurisdictions have come out with, err certain guidelines that will deem


what is err what is considered a heinous crime and what is a crime that deserves lower punishment, in sentencing the most severe punishment to the worst of criminals the states satisfies the retributive function of punishment maintaining the solidarity of society


, the death penalty, err might also prevent err convicts, err who have committed the most serious crimes of err


of committing the act again, for example if we, many statistics have shown that criminals who have committed murder are likely to do it again, these criminals are of not


asinine and hence, uh the only way to shut down their activities is to impose a severe sentence that would uh prevent them from committing any crime again


, if you that you have mentioned that uh the death penalty, fails to recognise the individuals , true value and fails to recognise that a life has intrinsic intrinsic value that cannot be determined by the state in a form of a death penalty


however, if we look at the number of lives that could that would at risk if we let a murder if we let a murderer uh escape from prison or finish their prison term and commit crimes again we are looking at more lives being more innocent lives being lost


as compared to one life that may not be productive to society due to, the crimes and lives that he might take, as such I believe that the death penalty should still be


allowed as a form of punishment as it is ineffective it as it is an effective deterrence and can prevent major crimes from happening, for example in singapore we have


we have serious penalties for drug traffickers, as such our said our state is, one of the lowest, crime have has one of the lowest crime rates and drug abuses


comparatively to the rest of the world, as such we should consider a nature of the states in relation to crimes and not just the statistics involved


debate topic one


okay uh, well


I do agree that both animals, and humans are capable of feelings of like distress or happiness and like other emotions when, put in like various like different situations


I believe that humans are ultimately, the ones with greater power, to make important decisions in the society , with regards to like nature and the world, and hence their lives should be of a higher value than animals I believe that this stems from the fundamental rights that we have as human beings


being of freedom of speech the right to vote and our right to an education which we all have here in singapore, only human beings possessed the power to make changes and are able to enforce laws in the society by setting up various organisations such as the police force and the military


and while on the hand, animals do not have such rights and are not able to make a direct positive impact on the society like humans do based on the formation of various organisations


with that being said, I believe that responsibility and power go hand in hand, the evidence which shows that, us as humans, already understand this it's found in the fact that we actually create governments and kingdoms


we know that without government the strong will oppress and abuse the weak at the individual level, and we also know that this is morally wrong or at least have the capacity and the choice to know what is wrong and what is right


such as crimes we have the moral capacity to know that it is wrong to actually murder another human being, however, humans are however animals on the other hand do not have the capacity to know


or even the choice to know, a male lion for example, in taking over his pride, has no compunction about killing all the other male cubs , to eliminate future competition, to him might is right


however to, us humans we know, that it is a crime, and something that we will not do on a daily basis, the fact, that in our society we have greater power and the ability to make powerful positive changes to make the world and nature a better place for all


makes our lives as human beings much more valuables, than that of animals, thus, I believe that animal lives should not be equally valued as human lives


okay


okay , I do acknowledge your point when you mention that , humans have the power to bring about change but many of them still choose inaction such as to


consume, animal meat beef or like uh, food consumption purposes or to it for like the use of leather but I find that generally the human life is still of


uh , greater intrinsic value than, animal life because, all creatures on earth of all the creatures on earth humans alone do have the ability to either destroy or preserve the earth and all life upon it


and the prerogative to make that choice so like what you said humans have the power to bring about change and that is exactly the reason why I believe that, animal lives should not be equally valued as human lives because humans themselves have the power to either destroy or preserve all life on


earth, this uh can be evident in the case uh through the death of a gorilla named harvey, on, may twenty eight twenty sixteen, a three year old boy climbed into a gorilla enclosure


and the zoo in the zoo, and was grabbed and dragged by a, seventeen year old western gorilla, fearing for the boy's life a zoo worker then shot and killed the gorilla, this shows that as human beings we do have the power over the lives of animals such that we are able to control whether they continue living or they die


given that we have the power to control their life and death similarly and conversely we also have the power as human beings to protect their lives and ensure that they do not go into extinction or become endangered species


this is also evident from the rise of, conservatory organisations such as the world wildlife fund also known as WWF which aims to care, protect and


draw funds for protecting endangered species around the world, therefore, I strongly believe can be argued that humans ultimately have the greatest power to make contributions to the earth and all other species on earth


therefore, human lives should actually be viewed at of a higher value than any other animals living on earth


okay uh I, understand your point regarding the fact, that many of the, world's issues now such as, the, extinction of endangered species is fundamentally caused by


uh the inaction of humans, but, I think the fact that humans even have a choice or the power to actually do something about it shows that they actually do have the


power to make a change in this world, because , if they are able to actually set up, world wildlife fund and other, , conservation organisations to even


make a to even, work on their mistakes, then it shows that actually they, have a choice and, when they make the right choice to actually , change the world for the better and come up with


conservation organisations, to protect these animals it shows that, we do actually have, a more valuable life and we should be higher, we should our life should be of a higher value because


ultimately we are the ones protecting, the animals, and we are the ones that have a choice to directly help them, and save them from being save them from, extinction so, we should surely be seen, we our life should surely be seen as of a higher value than animal


lives, there are many animals dying everyday, but you don't, really see any, , you do not really see any, road marches or movements, about animal lives


but once there are, like lives taken away due to, unfair practices in america, then you see that there are many actually of the, movements and protests in, america and that also proves that human lives are indeed


of a higher value than animal lives


taking that into consideration I'll just like to say that uh I do acknowledge that animals have emotions and they're able to express themselves uh in terms of their emotions and psychological needs just as much as humans are able to but


I find that just because they're able to experience uh emotions that are similar to what we as humans feel it does not mean that their lives should be equally valued as human lives , because, while they may express


and feel the same emotions as we do it does not show that they do have the, power to make a change in the world and I believe that the intrinsic value of a human life and, uh of a life whether human or animal


it depends on their power to change the world, thank you


part two debate topic two


okay, , for me I firmly believe that change is not always good uh like in the examples you mentioned you have only mentioned like inventions uh


through like innovative coming up with innovative solutions to solve modern, day problems like , the wright brothers, uh improving transportation networks and eventually inventing uh an aeroplane but I believe that that doesn't say that change is always good


in view of inventions new inventions to solve modern day problems yes change is good in that sense, but have you ever thought about, other situations and circumstances where change is not always good


for example there's uh C this very famous CEO and motivational speaker and author jack, welch, he never let up on his core belief that the continual focus on change is important, even when things seem to be going well


in his own words willingness to change is a strength even if it means plunging part of the company into total confusion for a while, from his words you can tell that he is insisting that change is always good


well, I believe that while it's clear that standing still and stagnating, is never an option, many entrepreneurs and business owners today have used welch's advice and words


as a license to get rid of their most vital processes, values, and even people without considering the bigger picture, for example, many companies and corporations around the world today


often implement his notorious stack ranking policy, of firing the bottom performing one tenth of an organisation's employees, regardless of their absolute performance, and as for other companies who had listened to his advice


stemming from the value that change is always good, they had also gotten rid of well functioning operational marketing or sales models for no other reason than to just demonstrate that they had engaged in change


and thinking that change would always always be good for their company, however, they fail to realise, that the problem, with change for changes sake, is that it often eliminates the good


with the bad, and, while I believe that change is always good you do not necessarily always have to make, big changes to your company it doesn't always come in that form and rather than making changes there's another approach that companies can take on


and, use instead that also accomplishes the good the goals of adaptation and growth, while avoiding the potential changes and disruption of their businesses, perhaps, instead of changing their business model


a better approach would be for them to just implement small adjustments instead of changes to their existing approach to allow to work on a much bigger scale and amplifying what they do best rather than making changes to what they are really doing well


which introduces a risk of being less efficient than before, hence while I agree that change that come in the form of invention and innovative ideas, will be good and it's probably good


I believe that people should not, think that change is always good and change what is currently working well for them instead a better approach would be for them to implement adjustments, rather than making changes


thank you


okay , so I do agree when you said that actually uh, change allows people to forgo stereotypes and outdated ways of thinking and also encourages people to uh becoming to become more willing to accept different ideas


by changing their views on the society, uh but , change can be detrimental if communities are unable to adapt to, these changes or if the effects of these changes are not


properly managed by all communities, for example many communities around the world have a very very long history and, deep rooted cultural traditions, and some of these traditions have directly


affected the way they these communities have live their lives for the past decades and even past centuries, with many being traditionally traditionally subsistence based in nature, the focus on subsistence has caused many of the native and traditional communities to be unable to adapt to the changes that the world has undergone over the years


as, they like the education and the capital to entirely re-work the nature of their societies and for them to change their cultural traditions just to be in line with how the society works now


(hmm), the native american communities for example have struggled for years in the united states, as their traditional subsistence based nature and their deep rooted connections to their lands have limited their ability to adapt to the nature of world and commerce and industries in the twenty first century


without the tradition, of working for monetary gain and the structures for proper education system and the right to an education for everyone these communities, have, often been left behind swamped by drastic and rapid change


resulting in many of these communities having to struggle in order to survive in the modern economy, that has evolved over the past few centuries and years, the change that the world experience was therefore detrimental to these communities that was somehow overlooked by those that have been pursuing and growing the world for change