How Spelling, Quiz Competitions Spark Academic Success: Grace’s story

Grace, a 13-year-old learner, still cherishes the memories of her journey to Blantyre two years ago.

She was in Standard Six when her spelling skills earned her a spot to represent her school in a Spelling Bee competition, in Malawi’s commercial capital, Blantyre. 

“It was one of the best moments of my life. I promised myself that I would work hard to attend secondary school in either Lilongwe or Blantyre,” Grace recalls with a smile. “We started our trip from Nkhata Bay at 5 a.m., spent a night in Lilongwe, and continued to Blantyre the next day. Along the way, we stopped to buy various things. My family gave me K3,000, ($1.8) and I was so excited. At the hotel in Blantyre, my friends and I stayed up late discussing the competition over the hotel phone. It was fascinating—something I had never experienced before.”

Grace’s school is one of the schools benefitting from educational interventions by World Vision Malawi (WVM).

The initiatives include the National Spelling Bee and quiz competitions; which Grace has participated in since standard five. 

“I loved the spelling bee the most. By Standard Seven, I asked my teachers to let me focus on it. It helped me improve my reading, sentence construction, and comprehension skills because I knew more words,” says Grace, the second-born in a family of four.

Now, Grace has reasons to be proud—she’s been selected to attend secondary education at one of the prestigious Missionary secondary schools in the country.

Her former primary school teacher Funny Kauzu agreed that the quiz and spelling bee competitions give learners pressure to study above normal and hence improve their performance.

“Apart from other initiatives that we were also doing as a school such as the 15 weeks of intensive teaching where the standard eight are placed in a boarding initiative, the students also have the discipline to work hard,” she says.

At home, Grace’s mother, Mbachie Ngulube says they stopped telling their daughter the time to study, “she got the discipline” she says adding that “after eating she could study from 8 to 10 in the evening without anyone reminding her. She could spell some words before his father, we were proud and we still are,” she says.

Primary Education Advisor for the area Adrian Kalenga says it is not surprising that schools in Sanga Area Program are performing very well during National Examinations due to the spelling bee and the quiz competitions.