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Students from eleven senior high schools (SHS) across the country on Tuesday engaged in a debate to identify issues of national concern and suggest tentative solutions for adoption and implementation by policy makers. The students mentioned illegal mining, environmental pollution and low women representation in local governance as issues that called for civil society involvement and affirmative action to deal with. Mrs Dora Hammond, Deputy Director of National Commission for Civic Education, in charge of programmes, said students possessed unique potentials which the Commission had identified and was capitalising on to promote effective participation in local and national governance. She said the Commission was implementing the project, dubbed: �Project Citizen� aimed at motivating young people to identify localised problems and offer appropriate solutions. She recalled that about six years ago, St Francis Xavier SHS and Minor Seminary suggested introduction of biometric registration into Ghana�s electoral system to reduce inherent electoral challenges and this was adopted by the Electoral Commission in the last election. The project also exposes students to learn more on governance while sharpening their reading, writing, speaking, critical analysis and research skills. Archbishop Porter Girls Secondary School won the debate and St Francis Xavier SHS and Minor Seminary came second, receiving thunderous applause from the participating schools. Bolga Girls SHS emerged third. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, both teachers and students described the judgement as �unfair and shocking.� Ms Lassey Christin of Aburi Girls SHS said the outcome fell short of her expectation and called for introduction of more judges in the future to reduce the incidence of bias. She said that would help boost confidence and trust in the programme. Master Abubakar Mohammmed of Tamale SHS also expressed reservation about the judgement and suggested the number schools selected for finals should be increased to five instead of three in the coming years. He condemned the situation where old students were selected as judges, especially when they had to judge their Alma Maters against other schools, adding that this resulted in bias. Asidua Mantaw, Assitant Project Director, Project Citizen, however, downplayed the students' concern, saying: "losers in any competition will often complain." Participants were given certificates and computers as their awards.