She is quite nervous, Rianne admits. Still, she and three other students from the Bertrand Russel College in Krommenie think they have a good chance of winning a prize at the National Debating Championships. After passing all kinds of preliminary rounds, the four girls go to the final, which is scheduled for this afternoon in Utrecht. “We have been practicing for weeks and are very fanatic,” assures teammate Noor.
Earlier, teacher Marco Olij told NH to be extremely proud on his students. When NH watches the final preparations, he even says he thinks it is a world-class achievement. “It is incredibly impressive. You are among the 28 best debating schools in the Netherlands and there are only four other schools in North Holland that have achieved this.”
“We take the train very early,” says 17-year-old Rianne. In each part, her job is to kick off with some kind of statement, which should serve as a foundation for her team’s rest of the debate. You could call the timing of the National Championships bad: she has a test week on Wednesday. That makes it quite a busy period.
Heavy competition
Noor is looking forward to the competition, which is fierce: “There are 28 teams. But we will do our best and I think we have a chance,” she sounds confident. “We have to defend all kinds of points of view. You learn a lot from that and it is also a lot of fun; you learn to see things from a different side.”
Olij thinks he will have a nice day. Does he expect prizes? He grins: “My feeling says no, but I was already surprised after the preliminaries and I would like to be surprised again.”