Spelling Bee contest produces two winners in senior category

There was a tight race during the recent National Spell Master Spelling Bee grand finale held in Lilongwe which saw two winners claiming the top position in the senior category.

There were also two winners in the senior category in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) contest.

This has since led to the organisers to redesign their competition and look into bringing in a tie breaker so as to have one winner.

Director of the competition, which will be going into the fourth season, Lewis Mbaula, said during the prize presentation ceremony by A1 Biscuits which is a subsidiary of Rab Processors in Blantyre on Saturday that the contestants are putting in more effort.

"This year we held ties in the senior category and then the ICT category and since we could not do a tie breaker, we just decided to split the prize money but we will plan to have a tie breaker. We would like to thank companies like Rab Processors through A1 biscuits, Axa, Standard Bank and many others for their support," said Mbaula.

He said in season three they were challenged because the competition involved all the three regions and that going forward they also want to have more schools in rural areas participating.

Rab Processors Limited Sales and Distribution Manager Douglas Mandala said the company will continue to sponsor the competition which he said is helping in uplifting the reading culture.

"Since this competition started, many children are doing well in their vocabulary and this is part of improving the education standards. Our brand A1 biscuits is also well known out there by students through this competition," said Mandala.

The Spelling Bee grand finale which is sponsored by Plan Malawi features juniors' category for primary school spellers, seniors category for secondary school spellers and the ICT for Girl Child category for all girls in the seniors category.

The ICT category is sponsored Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra).

Thirty five spellers qualified from the preliminary stage spelling bees that took place across the country and then the regional finals that took place in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu. Over 500 spellers took part this season.

The junior champion speller is Leonard Kadzamira who is schooling at Wisdom Centre in Lilongwe. He received a trophy and K200,000 while Nomsa Nungu of Mary Mount Girls Secondary School and Vanessa Sherry from Blantyre Baptist Academy claimed the top position in the senior category and shared K150,000 each.

The three said they were excited to have emerged winners during the competition and would aim at defending their championship in the next season. The trio urged fellow students to participate in the competition to among others gain confidence but also improve their English.