Dozens of learners from inner-city schools competed in the 2nd Windybrow Arts Centre Spelling Bee competition:
Hillbrow, South Africa (27 August 2024)—The Windybrow Arts Centre in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, was a hive of activity on Saturday where dozens of learners from inner-city schools competed in the 2nd annual Spelling Bee competition.
This year’s event was organised by the Windybrow Arts Centre and the non-government organisation Camp I Am.
“This competition is about creating a fun and exciting environment, but is also aimed at getting children to read more,” said Kai Crooks-Chissano, executive director of Camp I Am.
Chissano worked with partners from other organisations and the Windybrow Arts Centre to craft a challenging word list from the Department of Basic Education’s CAPS curriculum. The participating learners had a list of over 600 words to study in preparation for this year’s Spelling Bee.
Last year’s inaugural competition only had grade 7s participating, but this year was open to learners from grades 7 to 9.
The Spelling Bee forms is of the Windybrow Arts Centre’s Literacy and Homework Support Programme, which equips local youth with reading and writing skills.
This follows a 2021 study by the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) that revealed troubling statistics showing that more than 80% of grade 4 learners in South Africa cannot read for meaning.
Lordwick Pako, the Windybrow’s librarian, told GroundUp “We know we have challenges with literacy in South Africa, so our aim is to build a literate society which would result in people having access to more information and therefore making better decisions.”
The Spelling Bee consisted of four rounds. Learners who spelt words incorrectly were eliminated in each round. Eventually, only three contestants remained, battling it out for the top spot.
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At the end of the competition, Onthloletse Dimema from St Enda’s Secondary School in Braamfontein came out victorious after correctly spelling the word “Plateau” much to the delight of her English teacher who was in the audience.
“I really enjoyed the competition. It was so much fun even though I was nervous at the start. I love reading and writing, and English is my favourite subject, so I was familiar with a lot of the words we were asked to spell,” said Onthloletse. She won a R1,000 mall voucher as well as some books and a scrabble board game.
“We don’t have that many good news stories coming out of Johannesburg’s inner-city but I think this is one definitely is one,” said Gerard Bester, head of the Windybrow Arts Centre.
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