15 Oct 2015

Spelling completions are important to students as they expose them to proper words usage and sentence construction, says North West Education Regional Director, Mr Oupa Masesane. 

Speaking during the annual spelling bee competition in Maun recently Mr Masesane said the competition assist students in the pronunciation of words especially in this era where people had resorted to using abbreviation when communicating with their peers via social media such  as cell phones, facebook and other social networks.

He said word spellings are taken for granted therefore students are unable to construct grammatically correct English sentences.

Mr Masesane said the ministry of education skills and development takes the competition seriously as they believe it could assist the ministry improve results.

He further said that an activity like this drives the country's vision of being an educated and informed nation by 2016 to be successful as well as prepare for beyond 2016.

Mr Masesane however lamented that north west region has not been performing well academically therefore they hope that the activity will motivate  students and other regions to work hard to improve their results.

He said students should not only be taught how to read and write but they should as well be taught respect.

Mr Masesane further urged organizers of the competition to include other sectors in the competition such as primary schools, pre-schools and disabled students so that they could  start with them while they were  still at a young age.

Giving an overview of the competition, founder of Spelling Bee Ms Tshepang Thibedi said that the competition is doing well as so far eight regions were now taking part in it.

She said the first region to take part in the competition was North West region followed by Kgalagadi region. Ms Thibedi said the concept originated from the United States of America and was founded in 1925. She stated that the founding of Spelling Bee Botswana was inspired by an American movie called Akeelah and the Bee. Ms Thibedi said currently the competition runs in two categories that are junior and senior.

Ms Julia Kwape of Itireleng JSS in Lobatse won the junior category, seconded by Ms Boemo Mmopelwa of Tshodilo JSS in Maun while Mr Gillean Kebadirang of Okavango JSS in Gumare got the third position.

 In senior category, Maun SSS student Sesupo Mr Molathiwa got first position, seconded by Mr Lekwethe Lekwethe of Shakawe senior, while Mr Thebe Kebatshabile of Shashe senior got third position. Ends