First-ever English spelling contest launched

Guests at the launching of "The Daily Star Spelling Bee - Powered by Horlicks" at The Daily Star Centre in the city yesterday. From left are Richard Gregory, senior teacher and head of Courses, British Council Teaching Centre; Shykh Seraj, director and head of news of Channel i; Soumendra S Das, marketing director of GlaxoSmithKline; and Russell T Ahmed, CEO of Champs21.com. Photo: STAR

The first-ever English spelling competition "Spelling Bee" was launched by Champs21, an initiative of The Daily Star, yesterday to help school students enhance their language skills.
Titled "The Daily Star Spelling Bee - Powered by Horlicks", the contest will kick off on February 1. Students of class VI to class X from both English and Bangla medium schools are eligible to take part in it.
Spelling Bee, where participants are asked to correctly spell English words, is an internationally acclaimed competition quite popular in the USA, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Indonesia, Pakistan and India. Spelling Bee first began in the US in 1925.
Russell T Ahmed, CEO of Champs21.com, the first e-learning web portal of Bangladesh, said it is a national event and the students can prepare from now on by registering at the website of champs21.
The main purpose of the contest is to help students improve their English spelling, increase their vocabulary, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage, he said.
He also said the champion will be awarded Tk 500,000 in cash and a trip to Washington DC, the city of Spelling Bee, with one parent. The first runner-up will get a cash of Tk 100,000 and the second runner-up a cash of Tk 50,000.
Detailed information about the competition format and rules of participation is available on www.champs21.com
The education-based programme has three phases--online round, divisional round, and TV round. A contestant must undergo the rounds to reach the top.
Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star, said Spelling Bee is an educational programme where everyone of a family can join.
“Globally, when the Spelling Bee contest is telecast it becomes a family event and the beauty of this programme is everybody is a participant”, he said.
He said English education is a serious challenge for Bangladesh and, of all subjects maths and English seem to be holding the country's students back.
“We think we will encourage our students to learn spelling amid a enjoyable environment through this contest”, he said, adding that this programme is going to have a tremendous impact on the entire learning process of the students.
Shykh Seraj, director and head of news of Channel i, the telecast partner of the contest, said Spelling Bee is directly an educational programme which will help to learn correct spelling and pronunciation.
Because of the impact of social media, young people are using short forms of texts, which unconsciously get inculcated in their minds, he said, adding that Spelling Bee will help remove this.
He said Channel i would hopefully telecast the episodes of the competition's TV round from last week of February.
Richard Gregory, senior teacher and head of Courses, British Council Teaching Centre, said, “We are passionately concerned with the level of English in Bangladesh and hope that this will be the first of our engagements with a much wider community”.
He also said if Spelling Bee becomes successful, it will be great a springboard to a much wider range of activities that will interest, entertain, and help the kids learn English.
British Council is the knowledge partner of Spelling Bee.
Soumendra S Das, marketing director of GlaxoSmithKline, the power sponsor of the competition, said the initiative will have a positive impact on learning culture and growth of knowledge of the society.
Teachers of different schools were present at the launching ceremony.