By Adeola Ogunlade
A pupil of St George’s Boys School, Ikoyi, Ndifreke Wisdom, has emerged as the winner of the Spelling Bee Competition organised by Children’s Empowerment Fund in collaboration with Adebayo Dream Humanitarian Foundation held last week at St George Boys School, Ikoyi in commemoration of Nigeria’s Children’s Day.
Nnachetam Emmanuel of St George’s Boys School came second and Amoo Emmanuel of Dodan Barracks Primary School came third. Gifts such as Education Tablets, school bags, launch bags, launch boxes, water bottles, pencil cases, exercise books, and cartoons of biscuits were given to the winners at the event. 11 schools across Ikoyi-Obalende Local Council Development Area participated in the competition.
Speaking at the event, the Programme Manager, CEF, Temitope Akinrotimi said that the spelling bee is a competition in which contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words, usually with varying degrees of difficulty. The competition is a practical exercise aimed at providing a valuable educational experience for the participating learners, thus allowing them to engage in healthy competition.
She noted that the objective of this project includes but is not limited to encouraging education among children in underserved areas, inspiring the children and identifying talented ones to give their best at school, and motivating the children who do not believe education is rewarding, to get an education.
“To revive the quest for intellectual growth at every level of education. To be a source of motivation to the enablers of academic growth – teachers and school owners. The scope of this project was executed in partnership with school owners, and teachers while collaborating with parents and partner agencies in both public and private institutions.
“Since its inception in 2018, our touch has been within Lagos impacting over 500 children. However, we hope to stretch our reach towards the southern and northern regions where the youthful population and the number of in-school children are very low. Our target is to reach 5,000 students from Q1 2023 to Q2 2025”, she said.
Akinrotimi further stressed that despite the huge decline in the quest for intellectual acquisition existing at both primary and secondary levels, especially in government-led schools. The high demand for lifelong learning to cope with social and technological changes makes it necessary for agency interventions on the efficacy of classroom activities. In view of this need,
“Children Empowerment Fund (CEF) plans to bring another perspective to learning and intellectual development to students in the classroom by hosting a Spelling Bee competition in several schools across Nigeria. The program is fixated to hold every Children’s Day celebration in Nigeria, it has been our contribution to academic inspiration for the past five years”.
In his words, the Founder of Adebayo Dream Humanitarian Foundation, Dr. Adebayo Adekunle said that the competition is set to encourage healthy competition among the pupils in IKoyi-Obalende area.
Adekunle said that our mandate as an organisation is to be the bridge and help in the area of health, education, and vocation, adding that we want the pupils to go to school and be intentional about learning in school.