On spelling bee contest!

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