he Educate Together Debating competition was created by the late principal of ETSS Wicklow Colm Kehoe, who passionately believed in giving students a voice in society and engaging them in the big questions of the day. It stands as a wonderful tribute to someone who gave so much. 

 

We would like to see this competition continue to grow year on year and provide this wonderful educational opportunity for all Educate Together students for many years to come.  Last year we had 20 schools in the competition and envisage that this number will continue to grow as we continue to improve the quality of the event.  

 

Two things to note as changes from last year

• We are now going to allows students to fully judge the group stages. Most of the schools will have senior students who have been through the competition and who would relish the opportunity. This will hopefully alleviate the issues we had around judging over the last 2 years. Training and further details will be provided before the first debate.

• We will be running the competition earlier this year, the group stages will be complete by Christmas break and the final will be in March. This is also in response to feedback from last year.