Quality rivals showing up

The golden ticket receivers from Birshreshtha Munshi Abdur Rouf Public School flash victory sign as they move on to the Divisional Round of The Daily Star Spelling Bee yesterday.Photo: STAR

As the Daily Star Spelling Bee starts gathering momentum, so does the quality of competition in schools visited in search of Divisional Round qualifiers.
Three schools in Dhaka - Dhaka Residential Model School, Agrani School and Birshreshtha Munshi Abdur Rouf Public School - were visited by champs21.com yesterday with nine qualifiers emerging.
The qualifiers from Dhaka Residential Model College are Nafis Irteesham Arif (class 10), Samin Yasar Haque (class 9) and Aryan Zabee Rhyme (class 10). Twenty students participated in the competition and it took 3 rounds and one tie breaker to find the best three spellers.
From Agrani School the qualifiers are Rezina Arfin (class 8), Nazia Nur (class 10) and Jesima Rizwana (class 9). They battled for three rounds to find the top three from among 20 students.
Qualifiers from Birshreshtha Munshi Abdur Rouf Public School are Begum Rokeya Mou (class 10), Sharmin Akhter (class 9) and Kaniz Fatema (class 9). The competition started with 30 spellers. The best three were selected after three rounds and one tie breaker.
“It is great to see the students so excited and serious at the same time about spelling. Spelling and penmanship are a dying art, especially with technology being at the forefront of communication. It's great to see at least one of them being focused on,” said Sharmin Ara Ahmed, mother of one of the participants at Dhaka Residential Model College.
Alongside school participation, students from class six to ten can also qualify for the Divisional Round by registering and playing the online Spelling Bee game at www.champs21.com. They can play multiple times as only their best score is recorded. The Online round will be open till February 28.
For more information about the Spelling Bee visit www.champs21.com, the first e-learning portal of Bangladesh.