Bermuda's national debating team faces a tough challenge when it flies off today to compete in the 7th World Schools Debating Championship in Wales.

Since Bermuda's top students leave the Island to attend college, the 16-year-olds drawn from Berkeley Institute, Saltus Grammar, Bermuda High School, and Mount St. Agnes will be a year or two younger than most of the foreign students they are matched against.

They were drawn from a much smaller pool of contenders, and the information resources they could draw on were that much more limited as they researched the topics they have to debate.

But like all good debaters, the young men and women on Bermuda's team can argue both sides of any issue. And while there are disadvantages, they can also see a plus side to representing the smallest of 19 countries taking part.

In a larger country, members of a national team might live and attend school hundreds of miles apart, said Miss Jennifer Burland of Bermuda High.

In Bermuda, "we're all together,'' said Mr. Nicholas Pacheco, who attends Mount St. Agnes. The team has worked together since last May and recently has practised as a team "three or four times a week,'' he said. "That's an advantage.'' The other team members are Mr. Collin Anderson of Berkeley and Miss Selena Mello of Saltus. The coach is Mr. Gladstone Thompson, who teaches English and religious studies at Berkeley. And Mrs. Elizabeth Virgo, vice-chairman of the Bermuda Debate Society, was selected to attend the week-long contest in Wales as a judge.

Bermuda is to host the world competition in 1997 and is hoping to attract about 20 teams to the Island.

On Tuesday, the team practised debating the resolution: "Aid is a barrier to development,'' tossing around examples, counter-examples, and figures about the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund with studied ease.

The resolution about Third World aid is one of two the team will have to argue both for and against when matched against other countries in Wales. They will also have to debate four resolutions on an "impromptu'' basis, after only 90 minutes of preparation.

Mr. Thompson, who was an observer at the 1992 championships in Alberta, Canada, said he has spent countless hours researching the two known resolutions, but his work is coming to an end.

"At first, all of the burden is mine,'' Mr. Thompson said. "Then I slowly and carefully share the burden with them. Now, the entire burden is shifted from me to them.

"I don't have to debate, but they do. My job is just about done.'' Only Miss Burland has international experience, having taken part in the 1994 championships in New Zealand, where Bermuda finished 11th out of 12 teams.

Everyone debates in English, although it is not the first language of some of the students.

GREAT DEBATERS -- Bermuda's debating team is off to the world championships in Wales today. The team, from left, is Collin Anderson, Selena Mello, coach Mr.

Gladstone Thompson, Jennifer Burland, and Nicholas Pacheco.