Students Navya Joshi and Clara Boyd forged a winning partnership to edge out teams from Lesmahagow High School and Shawlands Academy in a keenly contested final at Parliament House in Edinburgh. (Wednesday, June 12).
Each team was tasked with outlining in their speeches what Scottish-based equality law they would establish, who for and why - and what does it aim to achieve and how?
The thought-provoking topic for this year’s final was: “If you were the new Equalities Minister for Scotland, what is the most pressing inequality you would tackle - why and how?”
Challenged with the difficult job of judging this year’s competition were Solicitor General Ruth Charteris KC, Crown Agent John Logue, and Lesslie Young, Chief Executive Epilepsy Scotland.
And they were each hugely impressed by the mature debating quality in all the students’ speeches.
Ultimately, however, it was Trinity High School who had the final say and came out on top.
Presenting the trophy to the winners, Solicitor General Ruth Charteris KC congratulated each school on its contribution to a hard-fought final.
On behalf of the judges, she said:
“We want to say that there were six inspirational speeches that were really delivered with conviction and passion. They were all excellent.
We also want to say that we cannot believe that the 6 young people before us are S2 and S3. You are an absolute credit to your families, and to your schools.
The other thing that I really wanted to say is that it’s so encouraging to see and witness respectful dialogue and interjections from all sides.”
The competition started in Glasgow in 2012 and quickly became popular with pupils and teachers.
It represents part of the work done by Scotland’s prosecution service to improve understanding of equality and diversity issues.
It is also part of the service’s strategy to reach out to communities and young people in Scotland and engage them in healthy discussion and debate on important issues related to the work of COPFS.
This year’s competition involved 96 teams from 57 schools from across Scotland as well as 142 staff members from COPFS.