Debate Society

Debate Society

The most important tactic in an argument, next to being right, is to leave an escape hatch for your opponent, so that he can gracefully swing over to your side without an embarrassing loss of face.

- American Journalist, Sydney J. Harris

Whether as an abstract construct or as the constructed exercise with strict rules and format, debate remains a useful and valuable tool in your learning. The Debate Society endeavours to train you to focus clearly on an issue at hand, undistracted by the tangential or the seemingly fashionable. You will hone your confidence in the eloquent expression of your considered opinion backed by credible information and knowledge in a myriad of debating opportunities.

CCA Information

Teachers-in-charge

Mrs Uma Jacob
Mrs Chong Mei Ling
Ms Tan Chork Meng

Student Executive Committee

CCA Highlights

National Schools Debate Challenge

The National Schools Debate Challenge 2026 is organised by Dialogic Academy in collaboration with Tanglin Trust School. This tournament provides students with an invaluable opportunity to engage in competitive debate and hone their skills against peers. This year, our team clinched the Runner-Up position in the Gold Finals. We also had two of our speakers. Tan Tian Lan and Xue Jiarui ranking 2nd and 10th Best Overall Speakers respectively.

Singapore Secondary Schools Debating Championships

The Singapore Secondary Schools Debating Championships, organised by Julia Gabriel, is an annual tournament taking place over the course of 2 months. Through the tournament, our debaters hone their resilience, self-confidence and teamwork alongside their ability to formulate and deliver strategic arguments. This year, our team advanced to the Quarter-Finals. We also had Yew Yi Zenn named the Top Best Speaker, Zhou Yi An named 4th Best Speaker and Tan Tian Lan named 14th Best Speaker in the overall tournament.

Orator’s Trophy 2025

The Hybrid Orator’s Trophy competition organised by Anglo-Chinese Junior College gives our debaters a different context in which they can utilise the improvisational skills and stylistic speaking techniques they learn through debate, as well as build their confidence in speaking to a large audience.Our Junior League participant, Ethel Ebenezer John, was a finalist at the competition.

SyNerGiSe exhibition debate

During SyNerGiSe, SNGS’ hallmark end-of-year event, our debaters introduced our schoolmates to the fundamentals of debate and put up two exhibition debates to showcase the skills they had just taught; this not only served as a unique opportunity to show our peers what the activity of debating entailed, but also allowed our debaters a valuable platform to hone their debating skills outside of competitions and in doing so, work together with their seniors and juniors.

United World College South East Asia Dover (UWCSEA Dover) U-14 Debate Competition 2024

This year also saw our Secondary 2 debaters participate in the UWCSEA Dover U-14 Debate Competition, in what was the majority of the team’s first competition. Over the two days of competition, our debaters grew the skills of critical thinking and communication, working together with their new teammates to achieve the title of Silver Finalists

CCA Achievements