Working on Fire in the Western Cape hosted its first national school debate competition at the Child Welfare Centre, for 25 learners of various Schools in Stellenbosch.
The learners, from Kylemore High, Makupula High, Luckoff High, Cloetesville High and Kayamandi High School, competed in a debate on topics such as fire prevention, how fire causes land degradation, frequent fires and how climate change leads to fires.
Adjudicators from the Western Cape Environmental Affairs, Stellenbosch Municipality, Western Cape Education Department and the City of Cape Town, assessed the learners on Presentation, Communication and Content.
The primary objective of the debate is to create an opportunity for Grade 8 and 9 learners to debate on environmental issues that have a negative impact on their social livelihood and natural environment. It also covered key fire messages and the core focus areas of the Working on Fire (WOF) fire awareness.
For the past few years, WOF has been targeting and working with schools in fire prone areas to mitigate fire hazards, through empowering the learners on key fire awareness messages.
The WOF teams have reached many schools with fire awareness key messages, but realised that debates can act as a vehicle to check understanding of learning delivered in the past and also pass out information on fire prevention to the learners who will in turn educate their communities as well.
Michael August of Kylemore High School says: “I’d like to thank Working on Fire for this debate as we feel we can empower ourselves and future generations to come.
“This has been a great experience and I have learnt a lot from this competition. I look forward to the next one and believe we will be better prepared and we’ll have fun.”
