On the 23rd and 24th last month, we hosted the 14th edition of the National Spelling Bee. Preliminaries took place on Friday 23 October at Next Media Park, and the Grand Finale on Saturday 24 October at Kampala Serena Hotel, Victoria Hall. In all, 353 spellers from 12 districts took part. That is more than double the 167 spellers who reached last year's Grand Finale.
The highlight of this year was the 114 spellers in the Junior category for children aged 6 to 8, about one in three of all spellers. The Junior category was made for early readers. Alongside spelling rounds, the children faced two rounds built around pictures and missing letters.
What's different with the Junior round?
Unlike the traditional bee as it has been, the Junior category came with a couple of changes that are meant to make for a more exciting experience for younger spellers. These include the Name the picture round, where a picture appears on the screen, the speller looks at it, finds the word and says it. The other new round was the Fill in the missing letter round where an incomplete word would be projected on the screen. To get it right, the child has to picture the whole word, use what they know about letters and sounds, and notice what is missing.
Why start so early
Spelling is a good way into reading. A child who wants to spell a word looks at its letters, says its sounds and meets it again in a book. The Bee gives a young child a reason to do all of that. A child who enjoys words early is more likely to enjoy reading, and a child who enjoys reading is better placed to enjoy learning of every kind. The earlier that spark is lit, the longer it has to grow.
Each of the 114 children in this year's junior category was accompanied by a teacher with whom they practised words for the past three months and a family who got them there. The spellers came from 12 districts: Jinja, Mayuge, Mbale and Tororo in the east; Kole and Kiryandongo; Masaka, Bushenyi and Mubende; and Wakiso, Mukono and Kampala around the capital. We are very grateful to every teacher, parent and school that helped a child get ready.
