CONCEPT PAPER

THE 2ND KEDAH ONLINE ENGLISH

LANGUAGE DEBATE COMPETITION
YEAR 2021

PREPARED BY
PUPILS' TALENTS DEVELOPMENT UNIT
(ENGLISH LANGUAGE CO-ACADEMIC)
KEDAH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
1.0 Name & Background

1.1 The competition shall be known as The Second Kedah Online English Language Debate
Competition.

1.2 The competition serves as a platform for secondary students in Kedah to compete in an
online debating competition that is based on the international standard of the World
Schools Debating Championship.

2.0 Format

2.1 A team must consist of 3 main debaters and 2 reserves.

2.2 The proposing team is known as the Government while the opposing team is known as the
Opposition.

2.3 Allocation of time and speaking order.

TURN GOVERNMENT TURN OPPOSITION TIME

1 1st Debater 2 st
1 Debater 8 minutes

3 2nd Debater 4 2nd Debater 8 minutes

5 3rd Debater 6 3rd Debater 8 minutes

8 Reply Speech 7 Reply Speech

1st / 2nd 1st / 2nd 4minutes
Government Opposition

2.4 Third debaters from both teams shall not introduce any new arguments. Their role is to rebut
the opponent and to defend the position of the team.

2.5 While a debater is speaking, the opposing team can offer ‘Point (s) Of Information’
(formal interjections). The debater may accept or decline it / them.

2.6 After all debaters have spoken once, the 1st or 2nd debater of each team gives a reply speech
with the Opposition reply speech being delivered first followed by the Government.

3.0 Eligibility

3.1 The competition is only open to all students from Form 1 to 5 from all government- aided
secondary schools under the purview of the Ministry of Education, Malaysia except residential
schools in Kedah.

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 3.2 A school / district is allowed to send only one team to participate in the competition.

3.3 The active speaking members from each team should consist of at least one Bumiputera
student from the same school.

3.3.1 If there is evidence prior to, during or after the competition contrary
to the declared status, the team will be disqualified.

3.4 Every member of the participating team should come from the same school at district level
only.

3.4.1 Representatives to the state and national level can be chosen from
different schools.

4.0 Adjudication

4.1 A panel of 3 or more odd-numbered adjudicators will be appointed for all the rounds at all
levels.

4.2 All appointed adjudicators should not adjudicate the team from their own
schools / districts unless there are no qualified adjudicators available.

4.3 All adjudicators should be briefed on the rules of adjudication before the competition.

4.4 Points will be allocated according to the score sheet.

4.5 Each debate will be won by the team which scores a majority of votes from the
adjudicators in the panel. Scores awarded by adjudicators are not to be added
together to decide the winner. Adjudicators shall decide the winner of the debate
independently.

4.6 The Chief Judge will collect the score sheets and the result slip to be submitted to the
Technical Officer.

4.7 The oral adjudication should be constructive, short and explain the result to the
debaters and audience. In particular, it should outline the key reasons why the winning
team won, and comment on the significant matters of the debate.

4.8 Certificates of achievement and participation will be awarded to respective teams.

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5.0 Procedure of Debate

5.1 Debate Process

5.1.1 The competition is going to be conducted by having 3 preliminary rounds on the

first day and knockout rounds on the second day.

5.1.1.1 The rounds shall be decided on:

i. First round shall be done by a random draw.

ii. Second round onwards shall be conducted using a power- matching system.

iii. Power-matching is drawing winners of the first round to be

matched against other winners and vice- versa.

iv. The match-ups shall be decided after ranking each team immediately after a
round.

v. Teams shall be ranked first by the number of wins, then by the

number of ballots, then by the total team scores.
vi. Ballots are the votes of the adjudicators where winning by a
unanimous decision is better than winning by a split decision.
vii. On the contrary, losing by a split decision is better than
losing by a unanimous decision.

vii. After the first round, a team with the highest number of wins,
followed by the number of ballots gathered, then by the total
team score shall be ranked 1st.

viii. In the competition, the team ranked 1st after round one shall be
matched against team ranked 3rd, team ranked 2nd shall meet
team ranked 4th, team ranked 5th shall meet team ranked 7th and
team ranked 6th shall meet team ranked 8th, and so on.

ix. The ranking continues and match-ups are drawn until all preliminary rounds are
over.

x. After preliminary rounds are over, teams shall be ranked to decide qualifying
into the knockout stage.

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5.1.2 The knockout stage shall be conducted as follows:

5.1.2.1 Impromptu quarter-finals shall be conducted with team

ranked 1st meeting team ranked 8th, team ranked 2nd
meeting team ranked 7thteam ranked 3rd meeting team
ranked 6th, and team ranked 4th meeting team ranked 5th.

5.1.2.2 After the quarter-finals, the winner of the first quarter-

final shall meet the winner of the fourth quarter-final
(winner of 1st vs 8th meets winner of 4th vs 5th) in an
impromptu semi-final.

5.1.2.3 The Grand Final shall be a prepared round.

5.1.3 Debates Using the Prepared Motions

5.1.3.1 The motions and sides for the prepared debates will be
given to the competing teams at least 2 weeks before the
competition; except for the Grand Final where only the
motion is provided and sides will be drawn after the semi-
finals.

5.1.3.2 No quarantine time will be given for the debate but

teams will be seated in the debate room 10 minutes
before the debate begins to organise their notes.

5.1.4 Debates Using the Impromptu Motions

5.1.4.1 The motions for the impromptu debates will be given

and sides are drawn at the start of the quarantine
session.

5.1.4.2 Teams will then be quarantined in their quarantine rooms for

ONE hour to prepare for the debate. If the Movement Control
Order (MCO) extends, the quarantine session for all
impromptu motions will be replaced by ONE-hour preparation
time.

5.1.4.3 For the quarantine session, teams are allowed to use their own
printed reference materials in the quarantine room. No
electronic gadgets are allowed. Teams found using electronic
gadgets will be DISQUALIFIED from the competition. However,
teams are allowed to use gadgets to communicate with other
debaters during preparation time, if the MCO is extended.
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 5.1.5 The active speakers are required to be in the Virtual Debate Room (VDR) 5 minutes
before the debate commences.

6.0 The Role of Virtual Room Master (VRM)

6.1 Each Virtual Debate Room (VDR) will be administered by one VRM.

6.2 VRM will generate the link of the VDM at least a day before the competition.

6.3 5 minutes before each session starts, VRM will open the VDR and accepting entry request
from all active speakers, 2 teachers-in-charge per team, adjudicators, speaker of the
house, and timekeeper. VRM will automatically deny entry request after the debate
session starts.

6.4 VRM has authority to regulate the microphone by switching it off if any of the room
participants disturbs the competition’s flow.

6.5 VRM will remove everyone after the debate session ends except the judges in allowing
them to discuss on the best speaker of the round only.

7.0 The Role of the Speaker of the House

7.1 Each debate will be chaired by a Speaker of the House who will be addressed as Mister or
Madam Speaker.

7.2 The Speaker of the House is responsible for the smooth running of the
debate and inviting the respective debaters to present their speeches
in order of their roles.

7.3 Before inviting debaters to present their speeches, The Speaker of the
House will read out the rules of the debate and then proceed to
introduce the timekeeper, adjudicators and debaters.

7.4 The Speaker of the House MUST refrain from making any comment
concerning the debate or debaters during the debate.

7.5 The Speaker of the House must ensure that the adjudicators be given enough
time to fill in their marks and wait for the signal from the Chief Adjudicator
before the next debater is called.

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8.0 The Role of the Timekeeper

8.1 The Timekeeper must ensure that each debater is given 8 minutes to deliver his or her
speech.

8.2 The Timekeeper will ring the bell once after the 1 st minute and at the
end of the 7th minute to signal the time allocated for Point(s) of
Information. At the end of the 8th minute, the bell will be rung twice.

8.3 A maximum time of 3 minutes will be given to both teams to prepare for the Reply Speech.

8.4 During the Reply Speech, the Timekeeper will ring the bell once at the 3 rd
minute to signal that the debater has 1 minute left. At the end of the 4th minute,
the bell will be rung twice to signal the end of the debate.

8.5 After each speech, the Timekeeper will announce the time taken by each debater.

This concept paper is valid for this competition only. The competition will abide to the above rules
ONLY.

Adapted from the concept paper of English Language Debate Tan Sri Datuk Seri
Panglima Dr Abdul Rahman Arshad Challenge Trophy.

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 THE SECOND KEDAH ONLINE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEBATE COMPETITION

YEAR 2021

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NOTES

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