KATHMANDU, Dec 9: The third annual National School Debating Championship for high school students, ‘MahaKumba 2016’ which was held at King’s College, Kathmandu concluded on Monday.

Team WSDC, Team St Xavier’s ‘Kha’ and Team Delta won the first prizes for English open, Nepali open and English novice categories respectively. 

Top English best speakers selected from this championship will be shortlisted to form a national debate team that will represent Nepal in the World Schools Debate Championship (WSDC) 2017 which will be held in Bali, Indonesia in August 2017.

One of the participants, Ojaswi Joshi from Nepalgunj, whose novice team lost all six group stage debates, shared her experience about Mahakumbha. She said, “Though the journey to Kathmandu was tiring and we couldn’t gather any wins, this tournament helped us learn a lot about debating, and we were able to meet many friends whom we can now call our sources of inspiration.”

Simran Thapa from Rato Bangala School and Asmita Nepal from St Xavier’s College won the best speaker for English and Nepali categories respectively, and Yajyoo Shrestha won the best judge award.