An amount of Ghc10 being cost of spelling manuals for the Spelling Bee Competition in the Upper East region has denied many pupils in Bolgatanga the opportunity to participate in this year’s event at the regional level.
This follows the refusal of heads of some basic schools to make purchases of the preparation manuals.
This was disclosed in an interview with Abongo Joseph, facilitator of Over Comers Club, organizers of the contest in the region during the municipal level grand finale of the competition held at the Bolgatanga Girls Senior High School.
According to the facilitator, the head teachers complained the amount was “too big” for the pupils to pay, despite the absorption of half the cost of the manuals by a Good Samaritan for each school in the municipality. He explained that the spelling manuals contain the words from which competitors prepare themselves before the competition.
“ To prepare the children for the competition they (schools) need what we call a spelling manual and that is a book that contains the words that will be used. The manual spells out the words, their origin, the root, the definition of the word so that the child can have enough information to prepare himself or herself for the competition. So these modules were printed out and sent round to the schools that were selected by GES for us, as we gave ten to each school. A student only needs to pay Ghc 10 and pick up the manual…but here is the case we had one person coming in to sponsor half of the cost for each school and that is five manuals for each school.
“As I speak, you have head masters and head mistresses giving excuses that the amount is too big and the children cannot pay. I’m quoting exactly their words” Mr. Abongo said in an interview with Atinka News’ Senyalah Castro Cazo.
Mr. Abongo indicated that the situation which could have been managed by school authorities resulted in cutting down the number of schools and pupils that participated in this year’s regional contest. He was, however very appreciative to the few corporate entities that supported the event.
This year's municipal level grand finale of the Over Comers Club Spelling Bee Competition saw a total of 40 competitors from 14 schools battle it out for the topmost position to represent the Upper East region at the national level.
At the end of the competition, Amalitinga Silas Winesakiya of Great Victory Academy made headway with the highest number of correctly spelt words. Ayariga Vitus Abagna-Naba from the Sacred Heart Junior High School and Fongo Abdul-Mutalib of Great Victory Academy took the second and third positions respectively.
Awards and certificates of participation were given to pupils and schools.
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com |Senyalah Castro Cazo
