Perhaps one of the best known Club projects, the competition has been held annually since 1976 (except in 2020 and 2021 because of Covid-19 – although we are working on a possibly revised format). It is an opportunity for Higher School Certificate students to think, discuss and make a team presentation on an issue relevant to society and also to provide an opportunity for public speaking.

Participants are judged on their understanding of the topic they are assigned, their analysis and the originality and practicability of their proposals, as well as their presentation skills and team work. Teams of fours students from schools across the island are invited to take part and a teacher is designated by each school to be responsible for coaching its team. The competition is held in English and, in most years, the venue has been the University of Mauritius’ Octave Wiehe Auditorium.

Themes in 2019 included Infrastructure Development, Educational Reforms, Climate Change, the Intrinsic Value of the Arts and Artificial Intelligence.

A star prize is given to the winning team and rewards are also given to all finalists. A certificate is awarded to all participants with special mentions for the finalists and the winning team.

Annual budget: About Rs80,000, mainly for prizes. Over the years, we have also had support from the MCA and also the MBC so that the event reached a wide public. In former times, when the necessary sponsorship was forthcoming, we were even able to send winning teams on a trip, for example to Rodrigues…