By Ibrahim S.Bangura
Magistrate Wilbri H.M. John, together with her siblings and her mother, has recently organized a Spelling competition at the Standard Nursery and Preparatory School Complex in the West of Freetown.
The aim of organizing the competition was to motivate children to be educated.
Six schools, including Standard Nursery and Preparatory School, participated in the competition. Some others are Bavia Preparatory School, Triumphant Elementary Preparatory School, etc.
For the junior category, Le 1,000,000 was awarded to the winner and t Le 500,000 was awarded to the first runner-up. The second runner-up took home Le 250,000. The winner for the infants took home Le 500,000, the first runner-up Le was given Le 250,000 and the second runner-up Le150,000. The winner for the nursery category went home with Le 200,000, with the first runner-up taking home Le 150,000 and third runner-up Le 100,000. All the winners together with some other participants who performed well in the competition were given some school materials.
According to Magistrate John, holding such an event will not only encourage and motivate children to spell and read well, but will also help them to be brilliant, brave, confident and be passionate about education. “Those of us who are privileged, helping the children in our little ways will help our communities greatly; we should not wait on the outsiders to do our jobs for us. This Spelling Bee is an annual event through which we want to see that our children are able to read, write and speak English Language perfectly and fluently nationwide,” she said.
Steven A. Kamara the father of Paul B. Kamara who won the junior category, said that he was proud that his son won the competition. “Indeed, today my son made me proud among my colleague parents. I always monitor Paul on his studies. Monitoring our kids is a responsibility to every parent,” he said.
According to Paul B. Kamara, he did win the competition because he studied very hard. “My father is always monitoring me to read my books even if I don’t want to do so. He is always motivating me through his words. So I am very happy that I have such a caring father. I thank the organizers of the competition, for this will help us grow as students,” he concluded.