Youth debate competition 2023
We are very excited about the launch of our association’s new project – the Youth Debate Competition! This is a Lithuanian-language debating competition that brought together students from different regions of Lithuania in November and December of this year. Its regional rounds were held remotely from 20 to 26 November. With its semi-final being held on the 7th of December at the M. K. Čiurlionis Museum (Kaunas), the final took place on the 21st of December at the Visitors’ Centre of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (Vilnius).
The preparation phase of the competition began with five debating training sessions in various Lithuanian schools. We would like to thank the more than 100 students from Plungė “Saulė” Gymnasium, Trakai Vytautas the Great Gymnasium, Rumšiškės Antanas Baranauskas Gymnasium (Kaišiadorys district), Utena Adolfas Šapoka Gymnasium and Anykščiai Jonas Biliūnas Gymnasium who took part in the trainings. Many thanks also to all the participants who represented their schools in the regional rounds of the competition!
Eight students who performed best in the regional rounds and were rated highest by the jury (consisting of experienced members of the association and representatives of other Lithuanian debating clubs) were invited to participate in the semi-final of the competition. The four most successful debaters in the semi-final – Titas Perskaudas and Gabrielė Ringailaitė from Rumšiškės, and Gabrielė Jakštonytė and Liepa Čiutaitė from Utena – were also selected to take part in the final. After the finalists debated the topic “Should the right to vote be granted from the age of 16?”, we were finally able to congratulate Titas Perskaudas, who presented his arguments in the most structured way and won first place in the competition final!
We are pleased that the heated final debate was followed by an expert panel discussion on the topic of the debate itself. We are grateful that Lina Petronienė (Chair of the Supreme Election Commission of the Republic of Lithuania), Umberto Masi (President of LiJOT), Guoda Vaitiekutė (Coordinator of the network “Žinau, ką renku”) and Šarūnas Grigonis (President of the Vilnius youth organisation-union “Apskritas Stalas” (VJOSAS)) were willing to discuss the voting age. Their discussion was moderated by Neda Miltinytė, member of the association’s board.
During the final event of the tournament, Arnoldas Pranckevičius (patron of the association), Lukas Kornelijus Vaičiakas (advisor to the Seimas President of the Republic of Lithuania, Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen) and Salomėja Pranckienė (representative of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Lithuania) offered their congratulations.
We believe that this competition not only helped participants to get acquainted with debating, but also inspired many to debate in the future. The Youth Debate Competition is held under the patronage of the Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen. The competition was partly financed by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Lithuania.
The rules for the 2023 Youth Debate Competition can be found here (in Lithuanian).
