Maiha Shehryar from Beaconhouse School System JT Girls, Lahore won the Dawn Spelling Bee Lahore Regional Championship title for the 15-17 age group on October 28, 2017, capping a day of nerves, furrowed brows, cheers, shocked expressions and tears poised to spill from the faces of youngsters, who had not qualified for the National Final.

The crowd saluted the finalists, winnowed down from about 1600 students from over 240 schools from across 30 cities of Punjab. The Multan, Faisalabad and Lahore Pool Round winners participated in the Lahore Regional Championship Final Round, competing amongst each other for the Lahore Regional titles. The Regional Finals concluded after five days of stiff competition.

It was particularly heartening to see participants from schools from far-flung areas, who had travelled over hundreds of kilometres to prove their talent.

The enthusiasm of all the outstation students was indeed commendable, although there was only one participant per age group from schools outside Lahore to qualify for the nationals. And that honour belonged to Sania Ayala from Maryam Siddiqa Higher Secondary School, Chenab Nagar, Noor Fatima from La Salle Higher Secondary School Multan and Rasmeen Arshad from Allied Schools Liaquatpur, who managed to bag the second, third and first runner-up positions in the 9-11, 12-14 and 15-17 age groups respectively. The audience also marvelled at the petite Sania who gave a tough time to Vaneeza Salman Mokal, but finally settled for the slot of the second runner-up and Vaneeza being declared the First runner-up.

Mikail Faisal Ejaz from Aitchison College was exuberant at being declared the Regional Champion for 9-11 age group. After a thrilling sudden death round, the quest for the 12 — 14 Regional Champion ended with Aqsa Hassan of Lahore Grammar School emerging as the winner.

Zuha Fatima Haider from Learning Alliance DHA Lahore and Musfirah Amjad from Garrison Academy for Girls, Lahore secured the first and second runner-up positions. The second runner-up title in the 15-17 age group was won by Shahnoor Hassan from Convent of Jesus and Mary, Lahore.

The girls participating in the 12-14 and 15-17 age groups outdid the boys. The pronouncers were Mr David Purrington and Mr Tanwir Shah, the judges were Ms Uzma Khan and Ms Khadija Khan and Ms Rabeea Salman was the Dawn moderator.

Message

Ameena Saiyid OBE
Managing Director
Oxford University Press Pakistan

Congratulations to Dawn on the completion of the National Spelling Bee Contest 2017. As usual, schools and their students countrywide took part in it with great enthusiasm.

It is heart-warming to note that this time the reach of the event was wider than ever before. Students in many small towns shared the eagerness of schoolchildren in large cities to participate in this event. As a matter of fact, the number of participants has been growing steadily ever since the inception of this contest, which shows its great appeal.

We at Oxford University Press Pakistan are proud to collaborate with Dawn in helping children improve their vocabulary and language skills in this way, which encourages them to spend their energies in a pursuit that will raise their educational standard.

I wish Dawn ever more success in their endeavour in the coming years.

Published in Dawn, Young World, December 9th, 2017