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A 13 year-old girl, Afua Ansaa Manukure from the Ridge Church School, an international school located in Accra, has emerged winner of the 9th edition of the Spelling Bee national finals on Saturday 6th February 2016 and will be representing Ghana at the 89th Scripps National Spelling Bee in USA.

The Spelling Bee competition is a literacy programme for primary children between 8 to 13 years with the objective of teaching students the proper and effective use of the English Language.

Ghana has been the only African country which participated at the global level but the coordinators of the Spelling Bee have revealed plans to extend to Nigeria, Namibia and Kenya in subsequent years.

According Mrs. Eugenia Tachie-Menson, the Country Director of Young Education Foundation (YEF), the 10th edition of the competition will come with modification in organization and preparation to improve the performance of the students.

Mrs. Eugenia also mentioned that YEF has commenced with organization of the competition in Nigeria and is looking forward to see a race between Ghana and Nigeria in the upcoming edition of the Spelling Bee.

The Spelling Bee has been classified as a non-academic exercise which is not examinable but Mrs. Tachie-Menson states that spelling has been proven to develop the intellectual abilities of children as they learn through fun activities.

Hence there have been rejections from some heads of schools and parents usually bordering on the argument that the Spelling Bee is not an academic exercise. Some even opine that it is not on its own an examinable subject by WAEC.

She cited Ghana’s educational structure and the media as the major challenge facing the course of YEF adding that reporters always ignore using new words in writing articles which is mostly read by parents and students.