AS the seconds on the digital clock hanging overhead ticked away, pulses raced, legs shook, throats went dry and tongues stuttered but the minds worked tirelessly spelling out the words put to them. Apart from the points rewarded each correctly-spelt word followed thunderous applause and each incorrectly spelt one complete silence. But the contestants who got it wrong had to recover from it quickly as the competition was still on and they had to spell their next word.

There are several examples of gaining from holding one’s wits about you. Like when asked by a pronouncer to spell a word, the student asked to know if she was to spell the singular or plural of that word and was told ‘singular’. So she spelled ‘antenna’ correctly but was informed that she had missed out the ‘e’ at the end of the word. That’s when she politely pointed out to the panel that she had inquired if they wanted the singular or plural spelling. Her objection was accepted with her getting a point there.

That’s how it has been for children from schools across Pakistan for the past 10 years. Some of the students taking part in this year’s Dawn in Education Spelling Bee weren’t even born when the first edition of the competition was held.

The 10th Spelling Bee regional competition was held at the Arts Council of Karachi, on Oct 28. The pronouncers were Momina Zafar and Ronald Algie while Mrs Ali and Ms Afshan Javaid from the Oxford University Press (OUP), who have been a part of the competition from the start, were the judges. Mr Brian Heath, the US Consul General in Karachi, who was the chief guest on the occasion, wished the students well, while joking how he also got involved in the competition as he felt the stress level rising in the auditorium as the words got tougher.

This year’s regional winners were:

Category 9–11 years: Regional champion: Jenna Megan Anthony, Convent of Jesus & Mary; First Runner-up:Izma Arif, Happy Home School O levels; Second Runner-up: Rayyan Faisal, Haque Academy

Category 12–14 years: Regional champion: Gaurav Kumar, St Patrick’s High School; First Runner-up: S. Ali Mustafa, River Oaks Academy; Second Runner-up: Abdullah Jahangir, St Patrick’s High School

Category 15–17 years; Regional champion: Rama Ali, Generation’s School, South; First Runner-up: Leila Rasul Khan, Karachi Grammar School–College; Second Runner-up: M. Sabih Ashraf, Generation’s School, South.