African countries come together for an annual Spelling Bee. Running for the 2nd year, it takes place in South Africa and the big prize is a bursary.
Finalists from 13 African countries will gather at Maropeng in Gauteng along with Monash South Africa, to compete for the title of Africa’s champion on Saturday, December 16, in the second annual African Spelling Bee.
Participants from throughout Africa are competing for the incredible grand prize of a full undergraduate scholarship to attend the prestigious Monash South Africa campus in Roodepoort, Gauteng as well as cash prizes.
“This will be our 14th youth spelling competition scholarship and second bursary for the winner of the African Spelling Bee to attend Monash South Africa and we are pleased to continue this support for promising young learners” – Professor Alwyn Louw, President of Monash South Africa
“Together the Spelling Bee organisations have run national competitions impacting well over 7 million young people,”
“Research has shown that learning to spell and learning to read relies on much of the same underlying knowledge and equip learners with a sound educational grounding,” – Roger Dickinson, African Spelling Bee Convenor.
In preparation for the event, participants have to read the founding document of the African Union and Thabo Mbeki’s I am an African speech.
Competition entrants represent their home countries including; Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
“It’s exciting to have 13 African countries participating and we look forward to that number increasing in the years to come,” Dickinson concludes.
It is great to see academic competitions like this becoming popular in South Africa and throughout Africa.
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