Francesca Odimgbe
The 1st Annual PRIME APEX Spelling Bee (PASB) contest being organised by Prime Apex News Magazine, has been scheduled to hold on May 27, 2023 to commemorate this year’s Children’s Day celebration.
It is a spelling competition for Secondary School students in the Badagry division of Lagos State where about 25 top secondary schools in the area are expected to participate in the exercise.
According to coordinator of the project, Mrs. Angela Daodu in a press statement, “the PASB is a community-wide enrichment event organized by Olu Angel Ventures and First August Solutions Limited, publishers of Prime Apex Magazine.
Speaking on the objectives of the contest, she said, “the PASB is modelled after spelling bees held by schools and other organizations in the United States to help in promoting literacy by allowing children to work towards a specific goal and providing a forum in which they can demonstrate their accomplishments. Bees also help children improve their spelling, vocabulary, study and public speaking skills and ability to thrive under pressure.”
She said the target was to gather 1000 students from various institution private and public to participate in this year’s event, while every student would pay a 2,000 naira registration fee and 1,500 naira for additional child from the same family. “These fees will help to cover part of the cost of venues, certificates, plaques, printed material, and clean-up. Payment is not refundable, she noted.
“Each school is expected to present maximum of 50 registered students to witness the competition and of the figure only five chosen by the school will actively participate in the bee to represent each school.”
The PASB, she added, “is open to English-speaking children in secondary schools. Plaques and certificates will be presented to the top three students in the bee competition while participating schools will also be awarded certificates.
She pointed out that apart from the competition, there would be other activities to mark the Children’s Day. “These will include social interactions, mock news reading and dance entertainment. However, every student at the occasion will not leave the venue without gifts from various sponsors and supporters of the event, Mrs Daodu promised.
She claimed that registration would be on first come first served basis and already most of the schools expected to be part of the contest had been contacted while registration would close in the month of April.
The spelling bee for this year according to her, is structured to accommodate students in a single group. It will be basically an oral competition to mark this year’s Global Children’s Day celebration. However, it may be restructured in the future.
She explained that the project was a product of her organisation’s interest in meetings and competitions f or parents, teachers and other professionals on social, educational and emotional needs .