Spelling
is crucial in helping students improve reading skills, expand vocabularies and
build English skills. Quality education remains a major concern and nowadays
many students from the schooling system are lacking in skills to read and
write. Therefore, this spelling contest is timely, as it seeks to build a
network of young people who will act as peer mentors for other students and
play a key role in supporting the academic growth of students, especially in
the areas of reading comprehension and spelling.
The
2020 Upper River Region (URR) Spelling Bee competition, organised by TAKE-M
Transformation Organisation came to an end recently. The championship, which
was held at regional educational directorate, Region 6, brought together 30
students from 17 schools within URR.
Abdoulie
Juwara, a grade 5 student of Chamoi Bunda Lower Basic School emerged the winner
in this year’s contest, followed by Isatou Camara, a grade 6 student of
Sheafielf Calvary Preparatory School. Omar Bah of Destiny Domen School finished
in third place.
We
thank TAKE- M Transformation and partners, for making the spelling bee contest
possible.
As
rightly stated by one of the speakers during a recent forum, the way one
express him/herself in writing describes his/her maturity. And quality
education is still a challenge in the country. To determine the kind of future
and society we want for our children, we have to start building that Gambia
today by investing in children.
It
is clear that teaching methods in our classrooms at primary levels are
handicapping a large percentage of students and these require greater
investment. Without early childhood development programmes, low quality
teaching practices and poor school management, a significant number of students
will be left behind as they grow older.
Again,
without quality education these children will ultimately graduate from higher
seats of learning without the necessary knowledge that will be required of them
to get good jobs.
Therefore,
investments should not be concentrated merely on infrastructure, but attracting
high quality teachers and improving the teaching and learning methods in
schools.
Let’s
all put our efforts together to create a brighter future for our children.
Remember, anybody who invests in children is contributing to national
development.
“It
is really important that focusing on things such as spelling, punctuation,
grammar and handwriting doesn’t inhibit the creative flow. When I was at school
there was a huge focus on copying and testing and it put me off words and
stories for years.”
Michael
Morpurgo
