PH spelling contest gets pupils, parents in combat mood
Children don’t see any joke in any contest. So it is every year at the Government Reserved Area (GRA-2) in Port Harcourt near the Hotel Presidential where the annual Spelling Bee contest takes place. Ordinarily, the place a picnic centre for children and the facility owners may have thought that adding a spelling contest would be additional fun. Not so with the contestants.
The sight is get is where children crash out of the hot room (where the contest takes place) throwing themselves on the ground wailing. It is a familiar sight to see a parent or teacher trying to hold and console a child. Fun however comes when a child burst out in hilarious jubilation. The child has won a category; the teachers would rush and mob the victorious child.
The annual spelling competition in the Garden City has emerged as pupils delight. It starts with most schools and homes looking out for the advertisements and promos that the contest is coming.
Next, schools buy forms with about N25,000 while interested parents from non-participating schools pick the forms for their children with about N3,000 per child. A parent said the contest helps her assess her child and to help spur her to higher ambitions. She is prepared to spare such an amount to give her child a chance to meet others and exchange swords of knowledge.
Some teachers who spoke to newsmen said they look forward to the contest every year, not just to win, but to see how much their schools measure with other top schools in the oil city and beyond.
Agbai Joy Ola, Primary four pupil of Graceland Montessori Nursery & Primary School in Port Harcourt however caused exciting sensations when she burst out of the hot hall jumping and crying for joy. Her teacher, Ayomide Robert, joined in the joyful commotion. Ola had just won the intermediate category. Other winning schools included Aladuma international, Day Spring, St Francis, Bereton, The Grove School, etc.
Ola told Businessday that she prepared by reading all night and praying along. In fact, she seemed to believe in her prayer efforts than reading efforts.
Ann Brighten supported the idea that children in school needed exposure to measure their skills and academic advancement with other schools. Yet, some parents want their children to win at all costs, probably for bragging rights.
Businessday gathered that some mothers seek to gain advantage but the organizers have stood their grounds. One of the organizers said if he could disqualify her own children from participating in order to ensure transparency and credibility, how would she, for anything, destroy the same programme by giving another child what she cannot give her own child?
In an interview, the proprietor of the Amusement Park and organizer of the contest, Ifeoma Egbuonu, said she would do anything to keep the contest credible.
Egbuonu, also an event manager and consultant, under the Kaodili Cares in collaboration with Garden City Amusement Park, said many schools in the region want more of the Spelling Bee.
She said Covid-19 caused a shut down in 2020 but that the management decided to restore it in 2021 to give the pupils another academic treat. She repeated her regrets about how difficult it is getting sponsors for education programmes. She urged Governments to join in sponsoring education programmes and adjust their budgeting process to accommodate this.
“Schools think they are good, so it is by competing that they can really confirm. Step out and show yourself and see what others have.”
She repeated her experience with government schools. “Government schools do not join. They will promise but they will not come. We have been trying to get them but no way; it is the private schools that continue to compete here. No child is useless. It is when you have not found the child’s key that you may think that child is a failure. Also, we do not give our children time to develop in every side so you can judge them.”
She said governments must not bring money but by permitting public schools to join, it would throw the door open for willing schools to register.
She said until public and private run schools begin to compete in same contests, the public would hardly measure the gap between them. She made it clear that it is not about studying hard everyday in the classrooms but that the pupils need many opportunities to interact, compete, jump and laugh. They need to measure their performances.
Giving details, Ogbuonu said the competition this year is 40 per cent from word bank which is made available to schools and contestants to study and 60 per cent outside the bank. According to her, contestants have to go on research for words and spellings to meet the 60 per cent gap.
She also defended the difficult and strange words that the examiners throw at children that even put off teachers let alone pupils. She said if simple and familiar words are used, how would any person lose?
She thus said the research and the grappling with strange words are the challenge that contestants have to defeat to be champions.
She also said the trick is in getting your pronunciation right. Most schools hardly teach phonetics and their pupils spell as they usually heard in their schools. So, coming to Spelling Bee now exposes teachers and their pupils to the standard sounds in spellings.