The Royal College Tamil Debaters’ Council was originally formed in 2006. But, the Royal College Tamil Debating Team was earlier functioning as a part of the Royal College Tamil Literary Association which was established in 1938. The Royal College Tamil Debating Team is considered as one of the Oldest Tamil Debating Teams of Sri Lanka. In early days Royal College Tamil Literary Association was mainly focused on debating, but later it diversified its focus onto various other literal activities, Thus, is 2006 The Royal College Tamil Debaters’ Council was formed to fully focus on the field of debating and to nurture and develop the Tamil debating skills among young Royalists.

Membership of the Royal College Tamil Debaters’ Council is very limited. The members are selected from grade 6 and above. The members are selected via a competitive selection procedure. The membership is limited to a maximum of 8 per batch(grade). The Royal College Tamil Debating Team is chosen from the members of the Royal College Tamil Debaters’ Council by their performance in practices.

The council annually organizes the Royal-Thomian Tamil Debate Encounter in collaboration with the S. Thomas’ College Tamil Literary Association. This is an annual Tamil debate between Royal College and St Thomas’ College for the Kulasekaram Memorial Shield held since 1994.It is the longest Tamil debating series in the world. The council has been established in 2006 with the Chairman N.K.Ashokbharan.

The Council also organizes seminars, workshops and friendly debates to nurture the debating talents among Royalists. Even in the pandemic non of our projects have been or will be halted since the online platform we are expecting every thing successfully via online platform this year.

And the Projects of this year are,

Inter School Tamil Debating Competition for the “VETHTHIYAR KINNAM”

The competition ‘Vethiyar Kinnam’ is regarded as one of the most prestigious competition among schools in Colombo. From 2007 the Council has made it a tradition to organize an annual All Island Inter Schools Tamil Debating Competition for the ‘Royalist Shield’.

Representing the School in Tamil Debating Tournaments

Producing talented debaters to represent Royal College Tamil Debating Team is the vision of our club. Representation is one of the main aims of the Royal College Tamil Debaters’ Council. We prepare students to participate in debating tournaments organized by other schools, government bodies and private institutions.

The annual competitions we have: Faculty of Law Sri Lanka Schools Debating Championship, Mozhimunai – Tamil Debating Competition organized by Sri Lanka Tamil Debaters’ Council, 25th Royal-Thomian Tamil Debate Encounter, Kural Thandavam organized by Tamil Literary Association of D.S. Senanayake College, Tamil Debating Tournament organized by Tamil Debating Society of Ladies College Colombo.

Nizhalnilai Vaatham

Its an interschool friendly debate series which is planned to be conducted via online. This project has been launched in the previous year. It consists of a series of debates in which Royal College Tamil Debating Team compete against other schools.The debates are used to be streamed live on youtube and official facebbook page of the council.

Inter Grade Tamil Debate Competition

From 2007 the Council organizes an Annual Inter Grade Debating Competition for the ‘Sir. Pon.Ramanathan Shield’. This tournament is mainly concerned on developing the debating skills of young Royalists and to give them opportunities to prove their talent. Accordingly, this year we have planned to conduct this project on the month of March.

25th Royal-Thomian Tamil Debate Encounter

Printing a Souvenir for the 25th Royal-Thomian Tamil Debate Encounter

The Royal-Thomian Tamil Debate Encounter is the annual Tamil debate between Royal College, and S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, and is the longest Tamil debating series in the world. The first debate commenced in 1994, and until now for 24 years the encounter continues. This year we have planned to print a souvenir for this event as it’s the 25th debating encounter against St Thomas’ College since its launched. This would include the articles relative to the past years’ debating encounters and the present one written by students and oldboys of the school, photographs and advertisements.

Debating Skills Development Workshop

Workshops play a major role in the debating career of each debater. Workshops improves the debating skills and knowledge of debaters.

British Parliamentary Style Debating Workshop

British parliamentary debating has been miraculously unprecedented and considered to be foreign among the Tamil debating community of Srilanka. Therefore, with tendency to nourish the Tamil debating field of the island. RCTDC strives to hold a workshop to introduce ‘British Parliamentary Debate’ style to the schools around the nation. The workshop will be conducted by the past debaters who have expertised in the relative debating style. By showing concerns to the present pandemic, this event will be held via a digital platform with an open invitation to the schools around the nation.

Inter House Tamil Debating Tournament

This year we have planned to hold the Inter House Tamil Debate Competition for Sir. Pon. Arunachalam Memorial shield. This will motivate and also be a training platform for our students to showcase their talents in debate competitions.

“SOL VENDAN 2021” – Search for the Best Speaker

Providing opportunities to our students to improve their speaking skills is one of the main goals of our club. To achieve this goal this year we have planned to organize a competition called ‘Sol Vendan 2021’. This competition mainly focuses on the presentation skills, debating skills and language skills of the primary school students(3,4 and 5). We have planned to organize this competition also in primary section.

Tamil Oratory Workshop

Even if the council prioritises the art of debate, it has extended its boundaries towards other fields such as Tamil speech. With the hope of polishing the skills related to oratory within the school, RCTDC is set to launch a Tamil speech workshop for royalists. As the scopes and targets of the Royal College Tamil Literary Association align with ours, both the club’s have concluded to induce this joint project which will have an effect of a combined force. In this event, the pupils from grade 6 and onwards will be educated by the lectures and well known speakers who have excellenced in the field of oratory and who also possess a sound knowledge about the language and literature. Considering the prevalence of the pandemic, this event has been switched to the digital platform.

Participating in Exhibition Debates

Debates are given huge importance in entertaining events. We have planned to do debates in events organized by school and private organizations. These debates have a great popularity among the public.

“ARIVIPPALAN” – Providing Announcers for School Events

Announcing is an important aspect of an event. It needs lots of speaking ability and composure in Announcing. Announcing is a part Debaters’ Council takes great care of. Royal College Tamil Debaters Council has promoted many announcers in many school events. These announcers play a vital part to the success of the event. Normally Debaters have the ability to face critical situations and to lead their society towards a fine path. In this way, our announcers trouble shoot many problems and keep the ceremony interesting.