Schools Questions and Answers competition

BBC producer Rob Pearson outlines a UK-wide schools competition:

The opportunity to hold decision-makers to account is one that youngsters get all too rarely.

But for the past two months I've been working on a project that will hopefully allow them to do just that.

'Schools Questions and Answers' is a UK-wide competition for school pupils aged 14 to 19. Schools record a five-minute debate on a single topic of their choice - and next year six winning schools will be making live editions of Any Questions as well as a series of special Question Time-style debates for BBC Parliament.

The schools will help to select the panel and we'll work with the pupils to ensure they're ready to grill them - all in the name of honest journalistic enquiry!

Schools Questions and Answers builds on the skills pupils develop by getting involved with projects such as BBC News School Report. But now we're asking them to not simply report on the news but develop their fledgling journalistic skills: to think critically, to compare and contrast a range of opinions - and to start asking awkward questions.

What's been great to see is the way a number of programmes and organisations have got together to work on the competition. We're partnering both the Institute for Citizenship and the Parliament's Education Service, and working alongside Question Time and Any Questions.

There's just a few days to go before the deadline for entries - midnight on December 4th. So if you're a teacher or a pupil why not get involved?