By any measure phlegmatic is a tricky word to spell but Nirvanie Ramnarain of Annandale Secondary rattled it off with ease yesterday to win the Rotaract Club of Georgetown first National Spelling Bee competition.
The 13-year-old who is considered a natural speller by teachers at her East Coast Demerara school did not even use the dictionary to prepare but spent her time watching the hit US movie, Akeelah and the Bee, which is about a spelling bee.
“I missed one word today because I did not get the pronunciation right but it feels good to win, the competition was fun”, an ecstatic Nirvanie told Stabroek News minutes after clinching the title at the National Cultural Centre.
The word she missed was dereliction but after lifting two trophies; a cash incentive compliments of Republic Bank; a certificate of participation and a book award compliments of Austin’s Book Services, the young lady lost all feelings of dejection.
She is now all fired up about next year.
It was her first spelling bee and she only had three days to prepare. According to Nirvanie, her school was informed of the competition on Thursday last and she was asked to enter. The only thing she could think of was the movie, which she said, was inspirational and very helpful.
But getting to the top spot was not easy. Nirvanie had to fight off keen competition from two spelling bee whizzes from the Institute of Business Education (IBE). Kevin Rampersaud and Darshini Deodat, second and third place winners respectively were very impressive throughout the final round yesterday.
Kevin and Darshini were also rewarded with cash incentives, trophies and book awards. Stabroek News was informed that IBE, which is located on the East Coast, holds internal spelling bee competitions.
Yesterday’s contest was held in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and drew participation from various senior and junior secondary schools across the country such as President’s College; Saint Stanislaus College; School of the Nations; St. Joseph High School and Charlestown Secondary.
On stage many of the young spellers gave it all they had.
When asked to spell some twitched; others gazed around for a little bit but many bravely spelt the words even when they did not know how.
The event was poorly attended by participating schools- something one of the students pointed out saying more support was needed. (Iana Seales)