It was a battle filled with irony. Two young teams from single sex schools debating abolishing single sex schools.

And Bermuda High School's Mia Finsness, Hayley Faries, and Christie Hunter won the decision as the proposing side, in favour of abolishing single sex schools.

They defeated the opposition of Drewe MacIver, Aladdin Diakun, and Dustin Magee, all from St. Andrew's College in Ontario.

It was an all-out debate, full of humour on a topic an observer said was "close to home''.

Miss Finsness told the audience that students in single sex schools do not get to learn about people of the opposite sex and take their naivete into adulthood.

"They do not get an idea about the good and bad of the opposite sex,'' she said. "They will need to know about the opposite gender and if they do not know it early they will learn it later.'' St. Andrew's Dustin Magee said it is undemocratic for anyone to close down schools.

"People should be able to go to any type of school they want,'' he said.

He claimed that around the world people wanted single sex schools and abolition would mean the loss of the right to the type of education one wanted.

Dustin was quickly countered by Christie Hunter who said: "People send their children to these schools not because they are single sex, but because they provide quality education.'' That point was reinforced by Hayley Faries who said that co-educational public schools should be given facilities and programmes equal to single sex schools which are private.

Christie added: "Only 1.2 percent of girls who have gone to single sex schools go to one of the single sex colleges. What happened to them at the single sex schools?'' But Drewe MacIver, in a room full of the opposite sex, subverted his own point when he slyly said: "All-boys schools would solve the problem of boys competing for the attention of girls in class.'' "Adolescents of both sexes find the opposite sex intriguing,'' he added to raucous giggling.

St. Andrew's Aladdin Diakun said that inter-school extra curricular activities -- like the debate -- was ideal in getting the necessary social skills around the opposite sex.

He added: "School, of course, is for learning not socialising!'' Bermuda Debate Society representative Elizabeth Virgo called the debate an excellent clash of ideas and said the audience had a chance to see humour in a debate.

She explained debate judges must look for three things in a successful proposition or opposition; style, strategy, and content.

BHS debate coach Jacqui Riordan said that with the topic "so close to home'' both sides had been preparing for it without knowing it for years.

The National Debate Championships will be held on November 21.