It is Uganda’s first and most engaging championship. It's name changed in 2023 with the full introduction of speech events like Poetry, Public Speaking and Story Telling, from National Schools Debate Championship to National Speech and Debate Champiomship. Since 2019, NSDC has run under the thematic areas of Transparency, Accountability and Anti-Corruption (TAAC). The main focus continues to be in the sectors of education, health, infrastructure, climate change and environment.

The finals of this championship first happened with just 20 schools. The biggest finals yet, had 80 schools attend in 2019. The competitions start with with regional academies (trainings) which culminate into regional debate & speech qualifiers across the country. Upto 250 schools participate at this stage. These qualifiers include schools from all regions of Uganda, ranging from Adjumani, Moyo, Arua to engage West Nile Schools and as far as Moroto to engage Karamoja Schools. We are keen to keeping NSDC with a national character by ensuring that all regions of the country are engaged.

NSDC is partly a paying programme with schools paying a subscription fee. This is what has ensured it consistently happens since 2009. In the recent past, NSDC has been supported in part by GIZ and by the Embassy of Ireland and the Kingdom of the Netherlands who sponsored some schools to the finals. Since 2010, the Parliament of Uganda has sponsored and hosted the grand finale. We continue to receive immense technical support in the area of TAAC from ACAs.