The Minister of Education, Hon. Filipe Bole queries the objectives of the Spellwell Competition sponsored by FMF Chow and their intended outcome of the competition.
“I would like to know what the FMF Chow as sponsor of the Spellwell Competition objectives are and what are the end results of the whole exercise.”
“The idea when it started was brilliant but as it progressed, the children find it difficult to spell the words given to them,” Minister said.
“In last night’s episode, words like: quintessence, cognoscente, lepidopterist, myrtle, oppugn, were asked between Rhishikul and Drasa Avenue school representatives. The match between Marist Convent and Tacirua Bhartiya, competitors were asked to spell words like ophidiophobia, dromedary, ersatz, dossier and few others.
“These are low frequency words we hardly use in our writing and certainly not in conversations and for the quiz master to expect class six students to understand them is murderous. Conventionally no one can be tested on something he or she does not know,” Mr Bole further said.
The Minister wishes the organisers of the programme to understand that English language is our second language and the competition should be constructed not to scare the students from participating by embarrassing them on television with difficult words.
The competitors themselves admitted when interviewed after the competition that the “words were difficult to spell and not of this world.”
The Minister proposed that whoever sits in the organising committee must have a teaching background.