GRADE 6 Pellsrus Primary School-learner Maurice Botha (12) will set off to Kenya later this month, to take part in an international Spelling Bee.
Botha won last year’s Spelling Bee while in Grade 5, making him eligible to compete in the African Spelling Bee – a consortium of sixteen Spelling Bee organisations from Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Malawi, Gambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Tanzania, Tunisia and South Africa.
The South African team will comprise Maurice Botha (Eastern Cape), Krithika Gia Dewnarain (KwaZulu Natal), Tshegofatso Morapedi (Limpopo), Mulamuleli Ramarumo (Limpopo), Livhuwani Siphuma (Limpopo), and Hlulani Victoria Baloyi (Limpopo).
“The school is very proud of Maurice and we wish him well in Kenya at the African Spelling Bee,” says Pellsrus Primary School’s Principal Irwin de Vries.
Botha won first prize in 2016’s regional Spelling Bee, as part of Jeffreys Bay Wind Farm’s literacy programme. The Wind Farm has also put its support behind his debut on the international stage.
“We are happy to be supporting Maurice Botha’s participation in this international event, especially as it’s the first time a young learner from the Eastern Cape has managed to get to this level,” says Hlengiwe Radebe, Economic Development Manager for Jeffreys Bay Wind Farm.
The third African Spelling Bee is being hosted in Kenya on November 22 to 25. A team of literacy enthusiasts have come together to improve literacy and unlock our children’s imaginations on the continent, through crea-ting the very first African Spelling Bee in July 2016. The Spelling Bee programme impacts on over 10 million learners across the African continent through national spelling competitions, teacher trainings and reading interventions among other literacy interventions in participating countries.
