The first-ever Pakistan Spelling Bee competition kicked off in Lahore over the weekend with the final round scheduled in Islamabad in December.
Spelling Bee contests, held globally, are known to help kids develop a love for language and improve their academic performance. They also boost self-confidence, communication, and public speaking skills in a friendly competition setting.
Storykit, a Pakistani startup focused on enhancing children’s engagement with books through interactive storytelling and games, is organizing Pakistan’s inaugural Spelling Bee competition. The competition, to be held in both English and Urdu and will see participation from 6,000 students from grade 3 till 8. These students will compete in a total of three rounds.
Schedule for Rounds 1 and 2
- Lahore – October 21 and 22
- Peshawar – October 28 and 29
- Islamabad – November 3, 4 and 5
- Karachi – November 25 and 26
The third and final round will be held in Islamabad on December 2 and 3 featuring teams from across Pakistan, declared winners in the first two rounds in six categories in both English and Urdu languages.
“We are organizing Pakistan Spelling Bee event for the first time and we have over 2,000 teams, that is over 6,000 kids enrolled in the competition from 35 cities across Pakistan,” Musharraf Ali Farooqi, the Storykit founder, told Arab News on Monday.
“As the organizers of an educational event for Pakistani children, it would be unconscionable for us to have the European Union as our sponsor, which has recently offered political support for the apartheid Israeli regime’s dehumanization and unfolding genocide of the innocent Palestinian children, women and men, and criminalized lawful dissent by European citizens in their own societies.”
EU sponsorship declined over support to Israel
The European Union (EU) pledged 10,000 euros for the event, with half of the amount already paid. The other half was due after the competition. However, Storykit later asked the EU mission in Pakistan to cancel the contribution.
The organizers said in a statement that they had returned a European Union (EU) sponsorship for the event due to the EU’s support of Israeli “genocide” of Palestinians.
“They have informed us that they will initiate the process to get the money back,” Farooqi said adding that returning the EU sponsorship was a carefully considered decision, and not an emotional one.
“We would like to believe that fundamental rights, and international laws and conventions are not based on rhetoric which can be bent one way or the other to suit a party’s interests,” he said, adding if a sponsor’s views were in conflict with basic humanitarian principles, Pakistan Spelling Bee could not have their sponsorship.