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| Educational programmes manager Abdellatif Sellami, executive director Hayat Maarafi and communications manager Ali al-Muftah explain QatarDebate’s plans for the upcoming year |
After launching its operations for the current academic year last month, QatarDebate has outlined its plans for spreading the culture of debate throughout the country and its efforts to reach even younger members of the local community.
Executive director of QatarDebate, Hayat Maarafi explained the future plans for the centre and its hopes for the upcoming year at a press conference yesterday.
This year, QatarDebate is extending its programmes to include preparatory school students, as it seeks to make debate a part of student’s life from the age of around ten, until they complete their university studies in their late teens.
Educational programmes manager from QatarDebate, Abdellatif Sellami explained that this continuity is a major aim of the centre, which aims to develop students throughout their academic careers.
He noted that the centre will be organising more debate league events and tournaments over the next year, with programmes set to be held on a monthly, if not weekly basis.
“Whatever we do in English, we will be organising something in Arabic,” he said.
Debating nationals will be the culmination of the academic year once again, with the competition set to be organised in April 2012.
“We will still have workshops throughout the year, for students, teachers and judges,” he said, explaining that the centre is hoping to offer public courses for people interested in learning how to judge debates.
At the moment, QatarDebate has 20 Arabic schools registered for programmes with the centre, and 22 English schools. In terms of older students, three universities have expressed interest in joining the Arabic language programme at QatarDebate, while 11 universities are already involved with the English language side of the organisation.
Maarafi explained that QatarDebate is hoping to make a number of changes to help its growth into the future.
“We want to increase our efforts with younger children this year,” she said, adding “we also want to organise more events with the community, and we also want to get more media coverage to help reach as many people as possible.”
“Our goal is to go beyond the school level and try and engage the entire community,” explained Maarafi, adding “we are trying to help them understand the importance of debate and dialogue.”
“To do this we have been involved with a number of different stakeholders to deal with different issues and work beyond the usual academic subjects,” she added.
Maarafi emphasised the importance of learning about debate, adding that exposure to debating can help in daily life.
“Debate is everywhere - everybody needs debate,” she said, adding “it is not learning to argue, but it is learning how to think, and how to speak to people with different views, no matter what they are.”
“It is about learning when to speak and when to ask questions, and it is important to focus on the young generation as the younger they are, the better the outcome,” she stated.
“We are also collaborating with other institutions to bring debate to older people who are not involved in QatarDebate’s programmes,” Maarafi said.
The centre has certainly produced an upsurge in the number of young people participating in debate events throughout Qatar, with many students taking the opportunity to get involved in local competitions during the academic year.
It will be hoping for continued growth over the coming year, and explained that it will be announcing the hosting of another major international debating competition in Qatar later this year.
