For the first time in its history, the Youth Parliamentary debates, will be delivered via virtual sessions.

Over the years, young people would gather at varying locations across the island, for the hosting of the discussions on a parish-based and national levels.

However given the global pandemic, the Ministry of Youth Development, who spearheads the activity, has had to shift from “customary” to “the new normal”.

Project Officer within the Division of Youth Development, Deslyn Williams, indicated that the Ministry took a decision to adjust its plans, in light of Covid-19 threats, towards the hosting of the debates virtually, to ensure the safety of the debaters.

“The original plan was to have our parish debates then national debates, however due to the global pandemic, we have decided this year to only have our parish youth debates, to ensure the safety of our young persons”.

The parish of St. Patrick will host the first debate sessions on June 23^rd. This will be followed by St. Andrew on June 25^th, St. David on June 29^th, St. George on July 8^th and a collaborative session between the parishes of St. Mark and St. John, will bring the curtains down on the 2020 edition.

Each parish will debate a different topic and subjects will range from social to economic issues affecting the populace and the globe by extension.

The debates, Mrs. Williams added will be held at the Ministry of Works Conference Room commencing at 6pm.

It will be facilitated by the Government Information service who will stream the sessions through its varying platforms and cross-shared to the Ministry of Youth Development, Sports, Culture & the Arts’ Facebook page.