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T Sekhose, along with officials of the Fountain Club, seen here during a press conference in Kohima on Aug. 27.[/caption]
Our Correspondent
Kohima, Aug. 27 (EMN): The 7th edition of the Nagaland Spelling Bee Championship is all set to begin on Sep. 27, carrying total cash prize money of INR 1.59 lakh, besides citation and trophy. The annual event will be held at Capital Convention Centre, New Secretariat for two days.
The event organized jointly by the Fountain Club, the patent organiser and the State Council of Educational Research & Training (SCERT) was first started in the year 2012. Since then, over the years, it has garnered positive response and participation from students, teachers and parents alike.
Announcing the upcoming event during a press conference this afternoon, SCERT director, T Sekhose said through this event, students have been given access to a lot of information to improve themselves, not just academically but develop other aspects of their personality through friendly environment and healthy competition.
The body of spoken languages - learning languages, words, pronunciation, etymology etc, Sekhose pointed out are not made readily available in the classrooms and maintained that this event is a good platform and opportunity for the students to build their self-confidence and learn so many things, which would help them in the long run.
Expressing his desire to see this competition as an interface for both private and government schools, Sekhose said this event is a good opportunity for all the students and teachers both from private and government schools to come together and engage themselves in a healthy competition and set a benchmark for themselves, especially the government schools.
He also informed that since the last edition, it has scaled down the participants from class VI-X, inorder to minimise the learning disparity, and therefore, the rationalisation and modifications for a more qualitative performance.
Sekhose also expressed his satisfaction on the conduct of the championship, and appreciated the Fountain Club for the technical support, and hope to see steady qualitative aspects in the 7th edition.
Also addressing media persons, convenor of the Fountain Club, Medo Yhokha giving a brief highlight on the formation of the club and its activities said the Club formed in 2005, by a group of like-minded youths, drawn mostly from students and youth organisations with its motto ‘Towards consciousness’ comprised of 18 members.
Since its formation, Yhokha said, cutting across political, social, communal and class affiliations, the club has been steadfastly responding to countable socio-economic and eco-educational related issues. The club, he informed was adjudged as the ‘Best youth club’ under Kohima and was also adorned with the ‘Best State Youth Club’ award 2005.
In the embodiment and spirit of the Club’s commitment to do community services, the club as a Patent organiser in partnership with the State Council of Educational Research & Training (SCERT) has started the Nagaland Spelling Bee Championship since 2012 with the theme ‘The learning edge’.
Yhokha said its primary focus is to inculcate and stimulate young students to develop the habit and love for reading with the philosophy of clearly understanding the origin and meaning of words to learning and acquiring knowledge.
The organiser, he said envisage to provide a platform to meaningfully engage in the use of English for command over their academic syllabus and the confidence in communication both in written and verbal, improve language competency by exposing the students to variety of books, prints and non-print medias and also enhance their memory and retention capabilities and sharpen their reflective capacities.
And it also hope to inculcate discipline and cooperative skills among the students, enhance accuracy, speed and prosody of the students, wide their vocabulary and facilitate the students to confidently face with various forms and level of competition.
Yhokha also informed that they are working on to send the students to participate at the national level once it aligns themselves with the criteria prescribed at the national level. Hence, he said the participants have been scaled down from class-VI-X.
He has also requested and invited all the schools from across the state to participate in the event- both private and government schools.
The champion of the 7th edition will walk away with a cash prize of INR 60,000 along with citation and trophy, the second with INR 40,000 while the third and fourth will be given away INR 20,000 and INR 15,000 respectively. The four quarter finalists will be given a cash prize of INR 5000 each.
A new award, he informed was constituted in this year’s edition for the young speller carrying a cash prize of INR 4000 along with citation and trophy.
Yhokha also informed that entry forms will be made available in a day or two in selected outlets in all the districts and can be downloaded at its website www.fountainclub.in.