engage your Grade 2-12 gifted child online with debate
critical thinking creativity collaboration
U.S. COACHING FOR GIFTED CHILDREN:
Learn directly from our Founder – two time U.S. State Debate Champion and Stanford University alumnus, Rajiv Kacholia. Read about our Founder's background and why he has brought this exciting social impact initiative for high achieving students in India, by clicking here.
Join gifted students already participating in Speech and Debate India's high energy, live online classes, practices, and small group competitive team debates! We leverage technology to deliver an exciting, personal experience. We limit debates to small groups and every child has a speaking role within debates to express their evidenced-based views. We have limited seats and this is a competitive activity - please review the FAQs below and sign-up to engage your child socially and intellectually.
Select up to 5 intensive two week Summer Course program tracks. Each track is Rs. 14,900+GST and includes 20 hours of live sessions over two weeks. Sign-up per your child's convenience and interests.
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Grades 4-12, Summer Course Program Tracks & Debate Topics:
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Healthcare & Disease [SOLD OUT]
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April 6th - April 17th
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Global Leadership [SOLD OUT]
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April 20th - May 1st
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Reimagining Our World [NEW]
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May 11th - May 22nd
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Environment & Climate Change [LIMITED SEATS]
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June 15th - June 26th
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Business & Entrepreneurship
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June 29th - July 10th
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Technology & Artificial Intelligence
- July 13th - July 24th
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Custom - Select 10 Sessions
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Example: Mondays or Tues/Wed or 1 week across multiple tracks. Inquire here.
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Grades 4-12, Divisions and Times:
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Elementary School (ES) - grades 4-5, Monday - Friday, daily, 4-6pm
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Middle School (MS) - grades 6-8, Monday - Friday, daily, 6-8pm
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High School (HS) - grades 9-12, Monday - Friday, daily, 6-8pm
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Grades 2-4, Young Explorers Course [LIMITED SEATS]
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Maggi versus Macaroni, Peanut Butter versus Jelly, and other debates in Food, Space Exploration, Sports, and Technology
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May 6th - June 2nd
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Watch a 3 minute video clip further below on this page
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Daily Monday - Friday, 20 sessions of 1 hour each, 2:45pm - 3:45pm
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Limited seats, Signup to reserve space for this special program. Seats will be allocated on a first come basis upon payment receipt - priced at Rs. 14,900 + GST
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Grades 2-4, Divisions and Times:
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Young Explorers (YE) - grades 2-4, Monday - Friday, daily 2:45-3:45pm (see details further below, under "Customized Courses")
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Our Unique Approach - This is not an elocution class, and we don't write or memorize essays. Debate is fun, competitive, and we help advanced kids expand how they think critically about topics beyond their grade level. Students gradually gain confidence to speak out, starting with smaller groups where they collaborate with teammates. Students research evidence and data under time pressure, and we look for structured position outlines to be prepared faster, enhancing writing speed, information processing, and decision making. Review our Benefits section for academic research on why there is no academic activity that can train young minds in the four C's as well as long-term participation in Debate. See FAQs at the bottom of this page for more details.
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Demo Courses - Apply Here to be waitlisted for 5, one hour demo sessions in May at Rs. 5,000 + GST.
Sample Video: Watch a video clip of some of our older students from a recent debate on postponing the Olympics due to Coronavirus:
Sample Video: Watch a video clip of some of our Young Explorer students debating fun topics like Amusement Parks, Homework, and Superheroes! See how they react when Mr. Kacholia teases them about not picking a winner...
PARENT REFERENCES:
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"We are really thankful to you and your team members for engaging children in this tough time. My child is really enjoying your session." - Parent, Ahemdabad.
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"The session was quite interactive. My child liked it." - Parent, Gurgaon.
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"Just pass on my message to Mr. Kacholia... It was really wonderful interaction. I was hearing the way he was analysing every aspect related to the child. Very impressive. It will also help the kids to analyse themselves." - Parent, Gurgaon.
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"Thanks for organising this. Kudos to you and team." - Parent, Mumbai.
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"Thank you so much! They're so excited about this class, and we couldn't have asked for a better teacher." - Parent, Mumbai.
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"This is so interesting. What an awesome idea to make a solid contribution. Such a great thing for a child!" - Parent, Mumbai
CUSTOMIZED COURSES:
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Young Explorers (Grades 2-4) Special Course - MAY 6th - JUNE 2nd
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Maggi versus Macaroni and more fun debates!
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May 6th - June 2nd, daily, Monday - Friday, 2:45pm to 3:45pm
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20, one hour daily sessions course for Rs. 14,900 + GST
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A special 4 week live Zoom online course for one hour per weekday starting Wednesday, May 6th to Tuesday June 2nd that introduces newly enrolling younger students to debate using our unique approach.
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Debate topics are fun and relatable to help students become comfortable with our format. Students in this special introductory program will discuss and debate these topics: Food, Space Exploration, Sports, and Technology.
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This course is designed to help younger kids comfortable and started through shorter one-hour sessions with instruction, time to collaborate with teams, and engage in debate games in a smaller group setting live online.
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Select the "Young Explorers May 6 - June 2" option on the sign-up form - Register here.
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SAT Test Prep, 1 on 1 custom 10 session course to raise your SAT English and Math scores. This private course is taught by a perfect scorer in SAT Math and near-perfect scorer in SAT English. Includes evaluation of a full diagnostic test plus customized plan for 10 hours of private, 1 on 1 Zoom instruction and practice test homework assignments for Rs. 30,000 + GST. Score at your peak potential. Inquire here.
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SAT Approach? We help students understand how the College Board structures and formulates problems. Every question on the SAT has one and only one correct answer. There are no "trick questions". We work personally with each student and customize learning to help shift how they approach the test and think like the SAT examination preparers. We also work to bridge gaps in areas that we identify after students take a diagnostic full SAT test. Before the first one hour of sessions begin, we build a custom plan for your success! We will never use your session time to administer SAT Tests. Instead, our approach is to use each hour of personal session time productively reviewing questions, answers, skill gaps and strategies and assigning homework to target growth in each subsequent class. Classes may be scheduled once or twice a week.
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Speech and Debate Personal Consultations - 1 on 1 customized sessions over Zoom. Inquire on WhatsApp.
debate academy Q1/Q2 parent session replay -
pedagogy and unique approach
Mr RAJIV KACHOLIA's PUBLISHED ARTICLES ON DEBATE
Below are articles authored by Mr. Kacholia on our pedagogy and benefits of Speech and Debate India:
Debating Helps Sharpen Critical Skills
Researchers have found that debating is unsurpassed as a challenging and highly respected academic activity that stimulates and supports a child’s development across core academic skills such as writing speed, reading comprehension level, listening,... Continue reading
Debate helps in building the ‘Four Cs’ of 21st century skills that a person can leverage to succeed in life. There is a growing need to supplement academics with these key soft skills... Here's how debating helps... Continue reading
Here's How Speech and Debate Fosters Leadership Skills Among Students
Colleges and employers have consistently indicated in surveys that leadership skills development is a major shortcoming of traditional schooling. The Indian Education system has focused far too long on academic test-taking, rote learning, and factual understanding. Students who focus on the “What” are likely to be automated, whereas those asking “Why” and learning how to fail and adapt will emerge as future entrepreneurs and leaders in the next generation.... Continue reading
Role of Speech and Debate India’s Academy in Enhancing Life Skills
Life skills are essential for the development and long-term success of children. Yet, these core 21st century skills continue to rank as the widest gaps by top universities and employers. The traditional education system built in the 1800s evolved with a focus on academics, but as our world has rapidly evolved, there is a larger than ever need to supplement academics with key soft skills. These skills for success are often much more difficult to learn later as an adult... Continue reading
How Debate Shapes Personality and Polishes Inter and Intrapersonal Skills
About 50% of kids are introverted and many suffer from fear and difficulty in expressing themselves. A majority of young girls will suffer from anxiety and lack of confidence, with 20% likely to become clinically depressed at some point during their teenage years. Does academic focus warrant neglecting equipping our next generation with confidence and the tools to express themselves?... Continue reading
So, You Want to be a Star Debater?
Both verbal and written communication have become increasingly important in the modern world. People spend much of their daily lives communicating messages, requests, questions, opinions, feedback, anecdotes, and more – both in person and in written or digital form... Debate improves vocabulary, reading comprehension level, reading speed, writing speed and level, speaking, attentiveness, critical thinking, creativity, and note-taking skills, essential across subjects. So what does your child need to do to win debates?... Continue reading
Mr RAJIV KACHOLIA's press interviews ON DEBATE
The Impact Of Debate Can Be Life-changing: Rajiv Kacholia, Speech and Debate India
Students tend to have short attention spans and most kids tune out multiple times through a lecture. We have flipped that model with student-centered online learning where kids enjoy the interaction and love being at the center of engaging discussions and debates... Our online pedagogy dives much more in-depth and empowers kids to really think, create, explore, collaborate – areas they naturally love... Continue reading
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic paralysing businesses across the globe, the academic field is also affected with it. However, one such entrepreneur is Rajiv Kacholia, who started Speech and Debate India (SDI) intending to empower students with confidence by developing their core academic and life skills... Continue reading
Master this core academic skill
Many students dread standing on the stage and put their point across to a room full of audience. It is one of the reasons why so few students participate in debating and speech contests held at school level. Self-labelling yourself an introvert to avoid going on stage will not do, as addressing audience and presenting a well-reasoned argument is something that you would be called upon to do very often in life. Debate is a critical supplement to a child’s development in academics and life skills...... Continue reading
The Importance of Speech and Debate in Education
What are the biggest problems with traditional professional development practices, and how can they be fixed?
Traditional approaches to professional development have faced many challenges that have been studied in recent years. First, most public speaking courses are short courses, taking a surface-level approach with mechanical “tips” designed to impress in a large public setting. But that is not where most of us are communicating day to day. We need to develop our own natural intellectual style... Continue reading
Speech and Debate India leads the way with the launch of Debate Academy
Speech and Debate India – a life-changing Journey backed by Research, with fun courses and thrilling competitive events, is advancing online academic and life skills training by launching the first-of-its-kind Debate Academy, taught exclusively by U.S. instructors. The academy aims to nurture the careers, balanced leadership development, and holistic personality growth for students in Grades 1-12 from top international and other schools across India... Continue reading
Equipping Teachers is the Best Way to Impart Quality Education
Our approach of teaching in India is focused on students and our entire culture is based on student-centered learning... Kids have an enormous ability and potential to learn and it is up to teachers to really build on that to make learning fun... What you want to develop is a child that can learn long term on their own. Continue reading
Get ready for the ultimate debate by students on Reimagining Global Education
Speech and Debate India is organising their first virtual debate and we talk to the founder and Stanford alumni Rajiv Kacholia about all that lead up to this moment and what we can expect from it... We hear that will take the debating culture in India on a whole new level. Think seven different quarterly courses held twice a week based on the US-style debate and curriculum. Mysteries and Courtrooms; Mumbai + Miami = Atlantis; Me, My Brain and I, and many more such exciting courses await all those who are ready for a respectable battle of words. How exciting!. Continue reading
Speech and Debate India to host online National Debate Tournament
Consecutive two-year debate champion in the State of Illinois, USA in the late 1980’s and founder of Speech and Debate India, Rajiv Kacholia explains, “Speech and Debate India leverages technology and our unique pedagogy to help kids learn to debate, while debating to learn and think critically about global issues and relevant content. The National Debate Tournament inaugural topic aims to deeply engage the education system’s customers – students – to join a conversation on how global K-12 schools can be reimagined to optimise for Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Happiness, and Social Impact... Continue reading
Advancing Academic Extra-Curriculars: Speech and Debate
The finalists have been selected over an intensive 3 month period... with more than 400 Indian students from Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Dubai, Hyderabad, Indore, London, Mumbai, New York, and others. Moreover, to help provide very detailed preparation for the National Tournament, Speech and Debate India introduced a supplementary live online tournament training course, which met in smaller groups daily over 4 weeks in live online classes featuring debate drills and topic analysis on the future of Global Education. The course saw an overwhelming response and was oversubscribed at 250%... Continue reading