Spelling Bee Championship underway

[caption id="attachment_141607" align="aligncenter" width="565"] DC, Kohima, Rajesh Soundararajan speaking at the inaugural programme of the Nagaland Spelling Bee Championship in Kohima on September 28. (EM Images)[/caption] Kohima, Sep. 28 (EMN): The much awaited 6th edition of the Nagaland Spelling Bee Championship 2017 on the theme ‘The learning edge’ commenced today at Capital Convention Centre. The specific objective of this year’s edition is to address the expected learning level of students from Classes VII-X. The inaugural programme was graced by Deputy Commissioner, Kohima, Rajesh Soundararajan, as the chief guest in which the Additional Director of SCERT, Ketholenuo Kesiezie, delivered the keynote address. With a vision to stimulate the minds of the students, develop proper usage of words and enhance the grammar and vocabulary, the Nagaland Spelling Bee Championship was conceived and conceptualised by the Fountain Club, Kohima, in the year 2012 in partnership with SCERT. In his address, Soundararajan said spelling is not only about how one is well verse with the words but the overall cognitive abilities of the brain. He, therefore, said that once a person developed both the comprehensive and cognitive ability, the spelling just comes to you, adding it comes with lots of efforts and practice. Observing that people have become so lazy to type the right and proper spelling of a word, he lamented that ‘distortion’ of words is becoming systematic now and affecting all of us. He asserted that nobody has the right to distort the language in the first place by distorting the spellings. To the students, Soundararajan said this is a good platform to reaffirm oneself of the importance of spellings and to develop our command over the language. Also noting that students here have better command over English language as compared to other states in the country, he stated his desire to see the students representing the state in the national and international level in the near future. Expressing her delight that the competition is proving to be very fulfilling for those students who possess a bent of mind for competition and a thirst for learning new things, Ketholenuo Kesiezie said it intend to convert this platform into a launching pad for higher learning for the students’ community in this highly competitive world. With impressive growth in enthusiasm and highly charged competitive spirit among the students across the State since its inception, Kesiezie said ‘it is our desire to scale up the yearly event into a regional level championship as a part of national integration with special focus to the North-Eastern region’ though there is no such common platform for the NER yet. She informed that the championship is open to both the government and private schools in Nagaland with the objectives to help students improve their spellings, improve their vocabularies, learn new concepts, develop correct English usage, develop team spirits and skills, instil confidence and improve personalities, sharpen the young minds, provide opportunity for students to meet and compete with their peers in a fun and friendly atmosphere and also to create new challenges for higher learning. Forty-one students from twenty-one schools are taking part in the 6th edition and 32 spellers were selected in the preliminary stage on the first day. The second day will be the final stage where 16 spellers will be selected. The pronouncers were Adila Longkumer, Mechüni Whiso, Ela Susan James and Vimesao Terhase, while the panel of judges were Daniel Thong, NC Kikon, Agnes Krocha Tepa, and Amongla. The champion of Spelling Bee will win a cash prize of Rs 60,000, while the runner-up will win Rs 40,000. The third and fourth will win Rs 20,000 and Rs 15,000 respectively, while quarterfinalists will pocket Rs 5000 each apart from citations and trophies.