TIMES JAKARTA, JAKARTA – The Indonesian national team for the World School Debating Championship (WSDC) won the Octofinalist title and was ranked in the top 10 in the world. With this achievement, the Indonesian national team has the right to compete in a similar event in Vietnam in 2023.

WSDC is an annual world debate championship that brings together debate teams from representatives of high school students from various countries around the world. Each country is represented by a team consisting of 4 to 6 participants and for 2022 there are 66 participating countries.It is also held online by IDEA The Netherlands.

WSDC 2022 national team personnel consisted of Aurellia Sherlina Siswanto (SMAN 1 Mataram), Collin Marvel Junus (Jakarta Intercultural School), Bonfilio Dazzle Valeriano Gyula (ACS Jakarta), Shafira Novianti Adi Dwi Putri (Surabaya Intercultural School), Rico Chandra (Bina Bangsa Pantai Indah Kapuk School) and Nadyne Apung (Jakarta International School).

"This Indonesian team consists of representatives from various high schools in Indonesia with a tough selection process held by National Achievement Center," said Rahmat in an official statement received by TIMES Indonesia, Friday (19/8/2022).

Rahmat explained, the Indonesian WSDC National Team was formed in January 2022. It has undergone national training in July 2022 with the support of the National Achievement Center under the Ministry of Education and Culture, Research, Technology and Higher Education.

Later, Indonesia sent their best contenstant for WSDC 2022 on August 7-18, 2022 which was held online by IDEA The Netherlands.This time, Indonesia won against Albania, Tanzania, Cambodia, Thailand and Taiwan. Their winning makes them  sit on the top 10 rank of WSDC list and eligible for The Octofinalist Award.

The WSDC National Team Manager, Rahmat Nurcahyo said that the motion covered various world issues such as International Relations, Education, Environment, Media, Politics, Economics, Post Colonialism and other global issues.

The Octofinalist award has sent them directly to Vietnam for the next 2023 WSDC. As winning this award Bonfilio Dazzle Valeriano Gyula said that the achievements was all from their hard work and other preparation such as joining some other international compettion before.

Not only during the debate contest, all the member also used English as their first language on their daily basis to keep themselves in line with what they are doing for now. For the WSDC they also keep themselves in rack with the latest world news through television and internet and some other resources. 

"In addition to reading various literacy sources, we also continue to update various world issues so that we are not left behind with issues and problems that are currently trending," said Aurelia, a WSDC contestant. (*)