Scotland’s young people took part in the St Andrew’s Day Debate in the Scottish Parliament on Monday 3rd of December. They did not fail to impress. Scotland should be rightly proud of her young people.

48 teams of pupils from schools across Scotland  took part. The  Grand Final was held  in the main Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.

2018 marks the 12th anniversary of this very special event. This is also the Year of Young People.

The competition takes place over a single day, with three rounds leading to a Grand Final in the Debating Chamber. Motions for the rounds cover a variety of topics, including equality, participation, democracy, and communities, and the format ensures that all debaters compete in three debates, with the top four teams going through to the Grand Final.

Teams are mentored by university debaters and pupils are also involved on the judging panels and contribute to the floor debates. The debates are judged by panels comprised of university student judges, school pupils and ESU competition judges.

You can watch the full debate here on ‘This house would ban anonymity online’ – a topical subject and excellently debated.