The competition, which began on May 18 with the regional round, saw Grade 11 scholars Zahra Jhetam, Dinendri Pillay and Lufuno Tshirangwana qualifying for the global round, which took place in August.
“Each country has a regional round whereby various topics are debated and discussed and the winners then move to the global round,” the scholars said.
“We have qualified for global before but could not participate because we did not have funds to go abroad.”
This year, however, South Africa hosted the event in Cape Town where the winners from the participating 32 countries during the regional round met for the global round.
These young scholars debated and discussed topics such as science, art, history and mythology.
Apart from this victory, Pillay was chosen as one of the top eight scholars to further debate.
“I was chosen to represent South Africa and I came first in the competition,” Pillay said.
Although the young scholars have seen success so far, they have been given an opportunity to further this at the Tournament of Champions taking place in the USA in November.
“The top scoring 25 teams from the global round will go through a series of rounds at Yale University,” Jhetam explained.
“However we need funds for this trip.”
In total, the girls need about R150 000 to cover all expenses for the trip but, of this amount, a registration fee of about R40 000 needs to be paid by October.
“It was amazing to compete in this competition and to understand others’ perspectives,” Tshirangwana said.
Pillay explained that for her the most challenging part of the competition was studying subjects given to her, but Jhetam said overall the experience was great.
“I was chosen for the flag-bearing ceremony at the global round which was an honour because South Africa was the hosting country,” she said.
Jhetam and Tshirangwana have dreams of entering the medical field while Pillay wants to become a human rights lawyer.
If anyone wants to sponsor the scholars, their educator, Chantal Morkot can be contacted on cmorkot@bhs.co.za
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