By Ang Yiying

FOUR school teams got vocal yesterday, debating if youths are the best mediators for disputes between their peers.

The secondary school students from Nanyang Girls' High School, CHIJ St Theresa's Convent, St Hilda's Secondary School and National Junior College were competing at the Youth Mediation Forum held at the NTUC Centre auditorium.

The annual event, which has been organised by the Community Mediation Centre since 2006, made greater efforts this year to reach out to youths about amicable conflict resolution.

As well as the preliminary and semi-final rounds of the debate, there was a cheer-and-song competition on the theme Talk It Out.

The British parliamentary-style debate finals, which saw two teams on each side arguing for or against a motion, had the supporting camp arguing that youths understand the problems of their age group better, while the opposing camp asserted that adults' life experiences are of better help to youths.

Jan Lee and Joyan Tan, both 15, from Nanyang Girls' High School, who argued for the motion, were picked as the winners by the 500-strong audience from about 40 schools.

Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs, who was the guest of honour, called mediation a 'life skill' that young people can pick up. 'Be a mediator, do a good deed, you'll never regret it,' he said.

Dr Lim Lan Yuan, who is a consultant to the Community Mediation Unit under the Ministry of Law, said: 'The greatest advantage if they learn it when they are young is that they will internalise the skills among themselves.'

He added that they would be able to appreciate that there are always two sides to a story when they encounter a conflict.

Commonwealth Secondary School student councillor Diamanta Vania Lavi, 15, who was invited on stage to help mediate a staged conflict scenario, said: 'I can use mediation in the council board and share it with my peers.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.