The 10th anniversary of 'The Spelling Bee' has been launched in Accra. The launch, which took place at the Osu Ebenezer Presbyterian Church Hall on Friday heralded a series of activities planned to commemorate the anniversary edition of the national spelling competition in 2017.

The ceremony drew an array of formidable speakers including H.E. Ambassador Robert Jackson, Rev. Dr. Joyce Aryee (Salt and Light Ministries), Dr. Patrick Awuah Jr. (President, Ashesi University), Mrs. Lucy Quist (CEO, Airtel), and Miss Afua Ansah, (TSB 2016 Winner). The chosen theme for the 10th-anniversary edition is: Equipping the Ghanaian Student for the world stage.

Mrs. Eugenia Tachie-Menson, Country Director of Young Educators Foundation, organisers of The Spelling Bee, who also spoke at the ceremony, underscored the importance of the programme in the lives of many young Ghanaians over the last 9 years.

“Over the last decade we have devoted our time and effort to building a platform that would encourage young people to read and we can say for a fact that we have managed to attain this objective over the 9-year period that The Spelling Bee has been here,” she said.

In the 9 years that it has been running,The Spelling Bee has been accessible to over 7,000 children across the country, equipped students and teachers in literary skills, inspired a reading culture amongst children and encouraged children with disabilities to participate.

“We are proud to have paved the way for other programmes that seek to give children the platform to express themselves in different ways. Some of these programmes include Junior Graphic’s spelling competition, TV3’s Talented kids, Citi FM’s Write Away Contest, Joy FM’s Read 100 Project, UCMAS quiz to name a few.”

Mrs. Tachie-Menson commended all the schools who have participated in The Spelling Bee since its inception, the teachers who prepare the students as well as the students who spend their time learning hard to take part in The Spelling Bee. “We could not have come this far without all these actors playing their role to ensure that The Spelling Bee would succeed,” she emphasized.

She also paid special tribute to the maiden winner, Miss Maria Isabel Kubabom, who represented Ghana “as the first and only African country to participate in the international competition and the current winner, Miss Afua Ansah, who made history as the 1stAfrican finalist in the 89 years existence of the international competition.”

There will be the regional competitions between the months of October and November 2016. The finals of the tenth-anniversary edition of The Spelling Bee will take place in February 2017 with the winner getting an all expenses paid trip to represent Ghana at The Scripps National Spelling Bee in the USA in May of 2017.