Poppy Davidson-Kelly:

On the 3rd of October, Knox Debate Club went to our first inter-schools debate competition. It was a new experience for all of us; no-one knew what to expect or how the day was going to pan out, so this resulted in a shared feeling of apprehension yet excitement among us all. We arrived at Currie High school and were led to where the other groups were gathered before the competition began. What hit us initially was the volume of other schools attending - it felt overwhelming to see so many other teams, lot’s who acted confident and settled in the room. But as we got to know more people, we realised that many other teams had little debate experience as well - and by the time the competition started we felt much more at ease. The debates began and, at first, we didn’t do very well. There is so much to factor in and think about at once; how you are standing, how you are speaking, what you have to do and what you actually have to say! But the hardest part, for me, was understanding the role I had been given in the debate. And as the day went on, we understood our part more and more, gained more confidence and applied new techniques and strategies that eventually landed Knox a 1st and 2nd place finish in our last debate. Overall, it was a brilliant experience and as a team we can't wait for our next competition!

Ugne Victye:

Waking up at 7am on a Saturday morning to debate is not everyones cup of tea... Well, that's exactly what happened to us on the 3rd of October! Hearing the alarm, unsure of the day to come. Butterflies in my stomach, the feeling was unexplainable:  nervous but excited. Upon arrival we were greeted with an immense modern school then guided to the ‘waiting room’. Heading into the unknown, our first time ever trying something out like this. 

Fortunately, we quickly realised that we are not alone. A few pupils from another school shared that they are in a similar situation which eased our worries.  Our first debate didn't go as well as expected, which is okay! Debating sounds easy in theory but trust me it is not. You have a substantial amount of things to say, but as soon as you come up in front of everyone, it disappears. Your mind goes blank. You forget what to say. Sometimes you even forget how to say even the most basic words. We placed last in the first debate and we quickly understood that nothing was wrong with that. It allowed us to figure out our weaknesses and work on them for the next round. 

Then lunch came around and we were curious about what the motion would be in the next debate. Again, we got last place in the second round, about which we were not upset because we clearly noticed that improvements were made since the last round and for me personally, that's all I needed. Not to win, but to watch myself and my teammates thrive and flourish as the day went on. 

The last debate revealed to me exactly what I wanted it to. After a day full of last places, we finally scored 1st place! It was a clear example of when you keep trying and giving your best at something, you will succeed and you will get better. This day was truly unforgettable, coming home I still felt all the adrenaline rushing through my body. It was a phenomenal feeling and experience! Not only did it allow me to work on my weaknesses in debating but it showed me that giving up should never be an option. I also want to thank our extraordinary leaders Ms Robertson and Ms Milligan for making this day happen and supporting us throughout it all! The next competition is not ready for us. 

In our day, young people are constantly saying how difficult it is to afford things. Why are my groceries so expensive? There's no way I'll be able to afford a car! I’ll have to skip a meal today. Well things are about to get a whole lot worse. For the close approaching UK budget, the mainstream media has been informed that the minimum wage for 18 to 20 year olds will be increased by a whopping… 3.9% . This miniscule increase is sure to be a blow to a vast number of young workers. But luckily there's a solution: work harder! Just like the generations who came before you did… right? Well it's not exactly that simple, although I wish it were. 

You may have heard your elders saying something along the lines of: “they just don't want to work” when referring to the younger generation Z, suggesting that we're just lazy parasites who want to live off of our parents. But it's often easy to say that if you felt like your labour was somewhat valued. Near the beginning of the 1980s, the average full time salary was around £8000. When compared to the then mean house price being just under 4 times your income, at £31000, a few years of saving and frugality would get you a house most definitely. Now that isn’t to say that life was all sunshines and rainbows in the 80s, but it was certainly easier to get your finances in order.

In comparison, to the young people of our era, it's significantly harder to earn a living. Often “working harder” simply isn't enough. In 2024 the average full time income was £35000, 4 times larger than the average income in the 80s. Though the same cannot be said for the average house price. It shot up not by five times, not six times, not even seven times, but 8.5 times that of the price in 1984! To put that into perspective, a house now costs more than double in comparison to a usual salary. Doesn’t this clearly display the immense difficulty with which it takes to succeed in our generation? Furthermore, the increase in minimum wage for 18-20 year olds only just creeps over the rate of inflation - aka how much more expensive things are.

The current president Serdar Berdymukhamedov took over in March of 2022 from his daddy Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. Gurbanguly claims he was previously a dentist. Inside the museum dedicated to him a picture can be found of him performing his well known former profession 'dentistry' where he is studying an x-ray of… a chest?

Only recently did the country become such a clear dictatorship. It happened officially in 1999 when Saparmurat Niyazov was named president for life. No other candidates were allowed to run for election and by this point he had already been president for the past eight years. During his rule it became increasingly clear he was a self obsessed maniac.

He added laws like making his autobiography (the Ruhnama) mandatory to read and even forcing people to memorise the book so they could answer questions related to it in job interviews, exams and, the craziest of them all, driving tests. Other absurd laws included: no lip syncing at public concerts, banning all dogs from the capital, and renaming the days of the week, months, and towns to names of his family members or references of the Ruhnama. A lot of these laws were abolished after he died in 2006 but some still remain.

Despite the country gaining so much wealth from their immense gas supply, most of the population lives in poverty. The government doesn't give enough support to live a day to day life with lack of food being a major issue. In key cities like Turkmenbashi and Balkanabat food prices have doubled or tripled in the last year which are still increasing. Radio Azatlyk - one of the few news sites to report on Turkmen affairs - is reporting that chicken is the only food on sale right now. Suspected illness has been killing flocks in the past couple months and soon this will leave people with no food to eat whatsoever. People who complain about these price increases and food shortages face fines or interrogations.

The minimum wage in Turkmenistan should be 1,410 manats (£300) a month with only a 40 hour working week but workers at a construction site report working for over 80 hours and receiving just above minimum wage. Turkmen pensioners are entitled to 550 manats a month, but in practice only receive a maximum of 200 manats. Some who get the equivalent of £18 are even having to rummage the bins for food whilst statues and golf courses are being constructed rather than supporting residents.

Trying to leave for better working conditions is also incredibly difficult. The government refuses to renew passports, even if people have already escaped Turkmenistan which forces people back into the country. On a whim the government bans people from travelling outside the country for no apparent reason. Some universities require students to get rid of their passport and that's if anyone even manages to join in the first place as universities have been encouraged to reject applicants with foreign surnames. Because people want to leave for better working conditions so badly there are queues to get overly expensive visas and then wait an average of two years to use it unless they pay an extra fee or a bribe, but even then if they reach what would probably be Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan the countries are known to sometimes illegally reject people at the border, visa or not. 

Current laws in Turkmenistan make being gay or trans strictly illegal and if found out people are forced into mental hospitals to 'cure' them of their sexuality or gender and then sent to prison. Former prisoners frequently report being brutally tortured and raped. Another right that is routinely disregarded is the right to your belief. Religious minorities can face imprisonment for simply practicing their belief. All satellite dishes are banned, and strictly no social media or visiting the many banned websites online. In a country where electricity is cut off every hour in main cities - with the exception of Ashgabat - you can imagine there is an extreme lack of internet to even attempt to reach the outside world. 

The treatment of women is beyond disgusting. There is a minimum age of 35 to obtain a driving license as a woman and they are forced to follow a restrictive dress code. Unmarried women wear yellow headscarves at work and married women are to wear yellow dresses. This minimises women to nothing more than their marriage status. To have that be the first thing someone sees when they see a woman will only lead to further dehumanization and discrimination.

There are even more rules in place to humiliate women such as in the Mary and Balkan regions there are compulsory gynaecological exams - which they call "virginity testing" - in high schools. There is no scientific evidence to validate these tests being done and it is only an excuse to abuse young girls. They will most likely grow up with this type of violence as domestic abuse is not illegal in Turkmenistan.

-pensioners rummaging for food (source: Radio Azatlyk) 

Turkmenistan keeps their human rights violations consistent. People are being imprisoned without food or water for days in some cases and often with no court decision. Enforced disappearances are also extremely common, so you can imagine why there's the hold on any journalism coming through. Those that are reporting from Turkmenistan are thoroughly harassed, tortured, and killed. One case of this is the activist Murat Dushemov being imprisoned in 2021 under the charges of extortion and violence. These charges are very likely made up to get him to stop his reporting. Nearing his release date he was sentenced to another 8 years in prison for beating up another inmate - even if this is the truth, eight years for a fight is an unjustified prison sentence to be handed out and an obvious display of oppression. 

Another example of someone being unlawfully imprisoned is Mansur Mingelov who was charged in 2012 for a case against his brother. He was arrested alongside his brother and placed in drug rehabilitation (despite never taking drugs) so that the injuries he faced while being beaten could heal over the time he was in rehab. He was then released after 15 days as there wasn't enough evidence he had ever committed a crime at all.

When activists move countries to evade these punishments they still face continued torment or even abduction and constantly experience extreme threats of being forced to return. They get harassed online and any people associated with them back in Turkmenistan are also kept under strict watch along with being, at times, punished. Sometimes people are forced back because of the refusal of renewing passports and given extreme sentences and tortured all behind closed doors. In 2025, two confirmed activists disappeared in Türkiye and are still reported missing.

Someone who successfully managed to leave is Akhmet Rakhmanov. He says he lives in a constant state of fear about the safety of him and his loved ones. He was a former reporter for Radio Azatlyk and moved to Türkiye in order to flee risks of being punished. 

He told reporters on 19th October 2025 that five people came to his door while at his home in Türkiye and told Rakhmanov they were soldiers. Two of them entered his house. 

When asked about his experience he said this: "We didn't realize they had come with bad intentions. When they entered, they looked around and saw children's shoes. Then they said, 'We've come to break your arms and legs. We were given that order in Istanbul, in Küçükçekmece.' But then they saw—you're a good person, we won't harm you. Just don't leave the house now. We'll call you, and you answer."

He then started to receive calls on Whatsapp regularly where people would threaten him. When he reported it to immigration officials they confirmed that these people could not have been deployed from Istanbul and authorities said that they are most likely on orders from Turkmenistan.

Turkmenistan not only breaks nearly every human right but keeps it all under wraps and does it quite successfully. Only recently have there been reports in English about the severe dictatorship of the country, but even then it is a significantly small number of articles with not many people viewing them. People should never experience such violations done to them as they have in Turkmenistan.

• Ivy Phoenix-Hill

Sources:

BBC (Key Facts)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16094646

Wikipedia (Laws from the first dictator)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saparmurat_Niyazov#Decrees_and_laws

Amnesty (Overall human rights report)

https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/europe-and-central-asia/eastern-europe-and-central-asia/turkmenistan/report-turkmenistan/

Human Rights Watch

Activists and disappearances

1. https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/09/20/turkmenistan-should-immediately-end-practice-enforced-disappearances

2. https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/06/25/turkmenistan-imprisoned-activist-faces-new-dubious-charges

3. https://www.hrw.org/feature/2026/06/24/lives-destroyed-for-speaking-out-turkmen-activists-at-home-and-in-exile/the

World Report on Turkmenistan -http://hrw.org/world-report/2025/country-chapters/turkmenistan

THF (Akhmet Rakhmanov report - translation needed to be able to read)

https://tmhelsinki.org/ru/article/b88e753d-20bc-492a-bbae-202f481ba5f9

Freedom House (Information about freedom levels)

https://freedomhouse.org/country/turkmenistan

Sovera Global (Labour laws in Turkmenistan)

https://soveraglobal.com/turkmenistan-minimum-wage-labour-rules-2026/#

Radio Azatlyk (translation needed to be able to read)

https://www.azattyqasia.org/a/nashe-polozhenie-ne-otlichaetsya-ot-polozheniya-skota-v-turkmenistane-pensionery-ischut-edu-v-musore/33779327.html - Pensioners being forced to look in bins for food

https://www.azattyqasia.org/a/v-turkmenistane-neizvestnaya-bolezn-unichtozhaet-kur-soobschaetsya-o-gibeli-do-90-ptits-v-nekotoryh-rayonah/33877116.html - Mass chicken death

https://www.azattyqasia.org/a/v-maryyskom-velayate-turkmenistana-ogranichili-prodazhu-rastitelnogo-masla-i-kurinyh-okorochkov-zhiteli-zanimayut-ocheredi-s-rannego-utra/33864215.html - Food shortages

https://www.azattyqasia.org/a/bezrabotitsa-vynuzhdaet-turkmenistantsy-pytayutsya-vyehat-na-zarabotki-v-sosednie-strany-ne-vsem-udayotsya/3371 7918.html -Leaving the country for other work

Imagine being punished for who you love. Stripped of dignity and freedom of expression. Unfortunately, that is the reality in Ghana. The Ghanaian parliament has recently approved a new bill criminalising homosexuality and the promotion of LGBTQ+ activities. In honour of pride month, we thought it would be prudent to look upon this ‘modern atrocity’.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 2 states that “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind”, So why is it that people are being stripped of these rights simply because of who they love? This blatant violation of human rights clearly shows that in such a modern age we still have a lot of progress to make, which is truly frightening. The bill criminalises LGBTQ+ individuals by introducing a prison sentence of up to 3 years strips them of their innate need for trust and compassion and inevitably leaves them to live in fear as Ghana justifies the anti-LGBTQ+ legislation as a means to “protect” traditional cultural norms and reflect the strong religious and conservative ideology among its citizens.  This legislation may contribute to the loss of jobs, homes and access to healthcare with some already reviewing and deleting their online activity in panic of their identity being revealed. Leila Larba said on BBC: “No matter how safe you are, you do not know who is ready to talk”.

As we all know, a few months ago all of Knox Academy’s pupils were lucky enough to be handed their own Chromebooks which they can use during class for learning and are allowed to take home to use for this purpose. Many teachers and pupils are using these devices to support learning, teaching and research. However, students are also using their devices for entertainment purposes, which is negatively affecting their learning time. Behind the initial excitement of their introduction, there are a number of consequences when it comes to giving pupils chromebooks.

With exams coming up, seniors are overwhelmed with the workload of studying. Endless hours of writing flashcards, mindmaps and notes can become exhausting and sometimes even ineffective. Not anymore. With the introduction of the new Chromebooks, seniors now have access to a wide range of digital learning resources designed to make their studying more efficient and engaging. These learning resources include applications such as Achieve and NotebookLM. Achieve is a learning platform specifically designed for Scottish students providing a vast selection of digital courses allowing for pupils to learn and revise efficiently helping them feel more confident ahead of their exams. Another great application the seniors were lucky enough to get on their Chromebooks was NotebookLM, a personalised AI study assistant. Upload a source and within a click, flashcards, mindmaps, reports and even podcasts are generated tailored to your learning needs. This not only saves time but also reduces the need for repetitive and time consuming writing, allowing pupils to focus on understanding the material rather than just rewriting it. As a National 5 student who is currently about to sit exams, I cannot be grateful enough for these learning resources which have made an incredible impact on the effectiveness of my revision in the past few months, which is a widely shared opinion.

What makes these Chromebooks even more beneficial is their accessibility. Not only are students encouraged to use these learning applications in school, but they are completely free to use at home providing effective, high-quality study support available 24/7, giving pupils the flexibility to revise whatever time suits them best.

The East Lothian council obviously thought it worth it enough to introduce chromebooks to Knox Academy for learning purposes, but being pupils ourselves, we have seen much the opposite. A step into any classroom will give you a sense as to how much of a distraction Chromebooks can be. If I were to record the number of pupils that were sitting there, playing polytrack in one of my classes, I would bet a hefty amount of money that it’d be 50%. This means that pupils are losing time to ask questions to the teachers and really sit back and learn topics. Now I can make an educated guess that 

For several years now, Knox has been defined by its school uniform. The infamous combination of shirt and tie has been a highly debated and contentious issue for as long as many can remember. However, as of recently, the idea of updating the dress code has been raised. Like anything regarding the school, this has in itself been controversial. Yet, what are the changes? And would they improve the experience of students if they were to pass?

The current school uniform has multiple reasons behind it, which can all be found on the school website. According to the ’Uniform’ page on the website, the uniform is maintained as it “helps promote the sense of community within the school and wider community and a feeling of ‘belonging’.” Additionally, the website claims that a consistent uniform would improve student equity, increase safety and allow students to get to school faster. Despite this, the current uniform has been widely criticised and regularly disregarded amongst students. 

Many students have critiqued certain elements of the uniform. A common complaint is that the clothing required can cause sensory issues, particularly regarding the tight collars, ‘strangling’ sensation of the tie and fabric used in the shirts. Additionally, many students may not feel comfortable in such formal attire, they may feel it is easier to learn when not sweating in a collared shirt. Therefore, due to these and many other reasons, students frequently disregard the uniform entirely. Which in turn may discredit some of the reasons for the uniform existing in the first place, as the apparent safety purposes for the uniform may be lessened as if a sizable number of students fail to wear the uniform, seeing someone not wearing it would not raise the alarms it probably should. 

What do the new uniform changes actually include? According to a recent survey sent out, the alterations made to the uniform include the junior years (S1-S3) surprisingly now being allowed to wear a black school hoodie among their usual uniform, despite the supposed safety concerns of hiding your face. While seniors (S4-S6) are now permitted to wear a black, high-necked, zip-up jumper, with their school shirts and ties still underneath.