Muscat – The championship seeks to develop young people’s skills in the art of persuasion and critical thinking, in addition to enhancing the spirit of competition and instilling the ethics of dialogue. The championship also highlights the role of debates as an effective educational tool that contributes to developing teaching methods and enabling young people to analyze social issues in a systematic manner.

The championship stems from efforts to achieve the goals of Oman Vision 2040 in empowering youth, promoting the culture of sound dialogue among youth and honing their skills in the field of public debates and critical thinking. The event will contribute to coaching cadres and make them capable of engaging professionally in national, regional and international issues.

A training programme for this effect will be held shortly in three sessions: The first, to be held on Monday, April 7, will cover basic principles of debate, while the second (on Tuesday, April 8) will deal with argumentation and refutation and the third will focus on techniques of case analysis and methods of presenting arguments.

The eighth edition of the championship will introduce a new structure for the preliminary qualifying stages scheduled to be held in three different places. The first stage will be held at the Arab Open University in Muscat Governorate on Friday, April 11, with participants from the governorates of Muscat, A’Dakhiliyah, South Al Batinah, North A’Sharqiyah and South A’Sharqiyah.

The second stage will be held at the University of Al Buraimi in Al Buraimi Governorate on Friday, April 18, with participants from the governorates of North Al Batinah, Al Dhahirah, Al Buraimi and Musandam, while the third stage will be held at Dhofar University in Dhofar Governorate on Monday, April 21, with participants from the governorates of Al Wusta and Dhofar.

School qualifiers will be in virtual sessions to select the teams that will qualify for the finals.