KARACHI, Feb 20: After interesting sessions and tough contests among well-prepared students, the national championship round of the 5th Dawn in Education Spelling Bee Contest concluded on Friday.

The Roots School System (9-11 age group), The City School (12-14 age group) and Generation’s School (15-17 age group) emerged as the winners.

The winning students in the 9 to 11 age group are: Liaba Ejaz (champion, Roots School System, Lahore), Saad-uz-Zaman (1st runner-up, Aitchison College, Lahore) and Nimra Farooq (2nd runner-up Army Public School, Lahore).

In the 12 to 14 age group, the winners are: Amna Ahmed (champion, Generation’s School, Karachi), Zainab Shahid (1st runner-up, Lahore Grammar School) and Ghana Ansari (2nd runner-up, Islamabad Convent School).

In the 15-17 age group, the winners are: Samrah Jamil (champion, The City School, North Nazimabad branch), Syeda Hafsa Sarwar (1st runner-up, Generation’s School, Karachi) and Mahnoor Javed (2nd runner-up, Lahore Grammar School).

Around 4500 students from over 650 schools and colleges from all over the country took part in the competition organised by Dawn Media Group in collaboration with Djuice Telenor (Pakistan). The district and regional rounds were held over the past few weeks in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore. The Oxford University Press (OUP) acted as the facilitator for organising judges and prizes.

“The student participation has increased considerably since 2005 when the first National Spelling Championship was conducted as part of Dawn in Education Programme. This year 48 schools from the interior of Sindh participated and, for the first time, we had representation from Balochistan, too,” said programme coordinator Fizza Rizvi.

The prizes were distributed by Syed Ali Rizvi, corporate sales manager-South Telenor; Adnan Hasan, regional director sales and distribution-South Telenor; Ameena Saiyed, managing director, Oxford University Press; and Masood Hamid, director marketing , Dawn.