A 13 year-old female pupil, Efua Ansaa Manukure, from the Ridge Church School in Accra emerged winner of the 9th edition of the Spelling Bee National finals held last Saturday.
She will represent Ghana at the 89th Scripps international Spelling Bee in the USA.
The Spelling Bee competition which is a literacy programme for primary children between ages 8 to 13 years is aimed at teaching students the proper and effective use of the English Language.
[contextly_sidebar id=”MTAZ4EdcWgwOr3XV38HVeeowwu0y8bxa”]Ghana has been the only African country which participated at the global level but the coordinators of the Spelling Bee have revealed plans to extend it to Nigeria, Namibia and Kenya in subsequent years.
According Mrs. Eugenia Tachie-Menson, the Country Director of Young Education Foundation (YEF), the 10th edition of the competition will come with modifications in organization and preparation to improve the performance of the pupils.
Mrs. Eugenia also mentioned that YEF has commenced with organization of the competition in Nigeria and is looking forward to see a race between Ghana and Nigeria in the upcoming edition of the Spelling Bee competition.
Spelling Bee has been classified as a non-academic exercise which is not examinable but Mrs. Tachie-Menson stated that research had proven that the competition develops the intellectual abilities of children as they learn through fun activities.
She further encouraged parents and schools to allow their children to participate in the competition since the aim is to teach them to be critical thinkers.
“The 10th edition will definitely be a special one and we are presently in Nigeria running the same competition so we are hoping for a Ghana/Nigeria spell off,” said Mrs. Eugenia.
Speaking to the press, Miss Efua Ansaa Manukure, winner of 9th edition of the Spelling Bee national finals, expressed gratitude to God for a dream come true adding that it was beyond her expectations.
Efua said this year’s contest was very challenging as other speller-brities gave her a tougher race but was able to stand out because she learnt more root words.
“I’m feeling extremely happy now and tremendously grateful to God for bringing me this far. I think what made it for me was my knowledge of root words which are the building blocks of words that come together to form a word and that really helped me,” Efua said.
For her prize, Efua received a gold medal, a certificate, products from Indomie, Club Muscatella, Voltic and a cash amount of $500 from Indomie.
The first runner-up, Lord Mba, a pupil of the University of Cape Coast Primary, also received silver medal, products from Indomie, Club Muscatella, Voltic, a certificate and an Ecobank Junior Saver Account.
The second runner-up, Emil Abagery, a pupil of Mary’s Child School, was presented with a bronze medal, products from Indomie, Club Muscatella, Voltic, a certificate and an Ecobank Junior Saver Account.
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Story by: David Cudjoe/MIMS Ghana