Four schools, St Therese’s UBS, St Peters UBS, LK UBS and the champions Kotu UBS, made it to the final.
The spelling bee final went through three rounds where each of the schools was given a word to spell.
Kotu UBS emerged the winners and were given D20,000, St Therese’s UBS took 2nd place with a cash amount of D15,000, LK UBS took 3rd place with a cash amount of D10,000 and St Peter’s took 4th place with a cash amount of D5,000.
Speaking on the competition, Ida Njie Touray of MOBSE said this was in line with the ministry’s development agenda of promoting quality education in school.
She said spelling bee competition ought to have originated from the US, and two years ago a similar competition was organised for senior secondary schools sponsored by Q-Cell and organised by MOBSE.
She said the importance of spelling, which is the act of spelling words from individual letters, could not be overemphasised, adding that spellings is important because it helps lay the basic foundation for students throughout their learning process.
Madam Touray added that learning to spell helps to cement the connection between letters and their sounds and the more deeply and thoroughly a student knows a word, the more likely he or she is to recognize it, spell it, define it and use it appropriately in speech and in writing.
Spelling is also important because it helps in reading, she said.
Coordinator of the competition, Musa Mendy, said all the schools that took part in the competition were all winners.
He appealed to the agent of peak to also sponsor a quiz competition that they want to hold in honour of the upcoming golden jubilee celebration of the independence anniversary.
He thanked the judges for a wonderful job throughout the competition and sponsors for sponsoring it.
Momodou Jallow, Peak agent in The Gambia, thanked all the schools for their participation throughout the competition and the ministry for their presence and support.
He also thanked Peak for sponsoring the spelling bee, saying that was not only the programme Peak had sponsored; they had also ventured into other areas like sport, health and other areas.