Romania's team, historic performance at World Schools Debate Championship

For the first time, Romania's national team in debating for students, coordinated by the Romanian Association for Debate, Oratory and Rhetoric (ARDOR) has ranked in the first eight of the 74 teams in the world, at the World Schools Debate Championship, taking place online between July 25 and August 5. This year, Romania's team was made up of * Oana Nitu (12th grade) (Michael the Brave National College in Ploiesti) * Elena Radulescu (11th grade) (Saint Sava National College in Bucharest) * Tania Acsinte (11th grade) (Saint Sava National College in Bucharest) * Irina Chicus (11th grade) (Gheorghe Lazar National College in Bucharest) * Valeriu Carasel (12th grade) (Michael the Brave National College in Bucharest) * substitute Arina Dumitru (10th grade) (Michael the Brave National College in Ploiesti) "The Romanian team was the only one in Europe present in the quarterfinals of the World Championship. The extraordinary path of the Romanian students stopped in the quarterfinals, against the team of the Phillipines. Strong teams, formed of native English speakers, such as England's or Ireland's team, left the tournament in earlier stages," shows a release sent to AGERPRES by the Romanian Association for Debate, Oratory and Rhetoric (ARDOR). According to the quoted source, among the topics debated are the possibility of police TV series doing more harm than good, the banning of meat production and consumption, commercializing outer space, rainbow capitalism, the fact that developing countries should prioritize industrialization for the purpose of substituting imports over industrialization oriented towards exports. Romania's team also obtained the titled EFL Best Team, of the 19 EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teams in the competition. Valeriu Carasel (Mihai Viteazu National College in Bucharest) finished 8th in the EFL individual standings. The coaching staff that trained the national team this year is formed of instructors and judges with experience in the Romanian Association for Debate, Oratory and Rhetoric (ARDOR), several of them former members of the national team: Serban Pitic, Diana Diaconescu, Stefan Matei, Teodor Grama, Laura Dragoi, Andrei Olaru, Miruna Cozianu, Eveline Dicu, Catalin Pantiru. Romania has been present at the World Schools Debate Championship since 2006. Until now, the best prior performance of the team was in 2020, when Romanian students finished 15th in general standings and 1st in the EFL rankings.AGERPRES(RO - author: Andreea Rotaru, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Maria Voican)