Wednesday brought more success for the Otago Boys’ Debating team of Liam Connolly, Luke Geddes and Boudewijn Keenan.

Having qualified for the Round of 16 of the Aotearoa Online Schools Debating Competition last week, the school was pitted against a strong side for a place in the quarter finals.

Having been given the negative side of the motion “This House believes that New Zealand should create opt-in youth electorates for candidates and voters under 30 (similar to the Maori seats)”, we had a very tight debate with high stakes. It was a great debate with the teams’ contrasting styles being a noticeable feature. However, in a very tight panel decision, we got over the line and qualified for the quarter finals.

The result brings us our 5th win of the competition having now made it to the quarter finals of a national competition in which over 140 senior teams have competed in across 6 weeks of lockdown. A tough draw awaits next Monday as Otago Boys’ will face the top seeded team in the competition!