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1st Annual African Spelling Bee approaching Fast!
Posted by Roger Dickinson on 01 July 2016 1:15 PM CAT
With less than 2 weeks to go - its all sysytems go for the 1st Annual African Spelling Bee.
Nine Spelling Bee organisations from across the continent have joined together to establish the African Spelling Bee Consortium in order to host the first ever AFRICAN SPELLING BEE to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa on 16 July 2016. Together the Spelling Bee organisations have run national competitions impacting well over five million young people.
The African Spelling Bee Consortium has partnered with Monash South Africa (MSA) to organise and host the African Spelling Bee Championship. MSA is proudly sponsoring the grand prize of a fully paid undergraduate tuition scholarship to the spelling champion. Professor Alwyn Louw, Monash South Africa Academic President, said "Our collaboration with Spell It over the years has provided sponsorships for 14 learners to attend Monash South Africa and we are pleased to continue this support for promising young learners".
The competition delegates will meet in Johannesburg for the final event hosted by African Spelling Bee Consortium and their partners the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, Fleet Africa, Nedbank and Monash South Africa. South African Airways has also partnered with the African Spelling Bee Consortium to be the official carrier for delegates from across the continent.
The African Spelling delegation consists of 27 learners – the top three finalists from nine of the participating countries – their chaperones and competition coordinators. The participating African countries include Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Nigeria, Botswana, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and South Africa.
The Africa Spelling Bee Championship will take place on Saturday, 16 July at the Nedbank Auditorium. The programme will begin at 9:00 and will consist of four distinct rounds. After a challenging first three rounds where contestants will have to spell multi-lingual words, the remaining finalists will battle it out in the final fourth round as they attempt to spell the ‘25 Championship’ words.
The winner of this round will be named the first 2016 Africa Spelling Bee champion, and will be presented with the MSA undergraduate scholarship prize.
During their stay, delegates will participate in an educational tour starting on 12th July that will include a visit to the MSA campus, a visit to Vilakazi Street, the Hector Pieterson Museum, Sandton Square and number of other points of interest. In addition a mini-African Union session will be hosted by staff and students of MSA
