The Sam Igbe Foundation hosted its third Annual Spelling Bee competition on the 27th and 29th of June 2018 at the D' Gallery Event Center, Benin City, Edo state. The spelling bee was targeted at Junior Secondary School students in public schools. Every year we conduct this spelling bee, I am always pleasantly surprised by the industriousness of the students. At SIF, we teach participants that while there is one winner, we aim to promote healthy competition.
The foundation sent invitation letters to the various public schools and their principals. There were 39 students selected from 12 schools across Edo State namely Itohan Junior Secondary School, Eweka Junior Secondary School, Imueguero College Junior Secondary, Western Boys High School, Edo College, Oredo Junior Secondary School, Ugiomo Junior Secondary School, Niger College, Government Science and Technical College, New Era Junior Secondary School, Asoro Grammar School and St. Maria Goretti. They all represented their schools exceedingly well.
For the semi-finale, the participants had been narrowed down to 6 finalists. On the final day, our special guest, The Honorable Commissioner for Education, Edo State, Dr. Christopher I. Adesotu, Commended the foundation and implored the students, teachers and schools to continue to promote growth through education.
At the end, Gift Itepu from New Era Grammar School clenched the first-place prize receiving N75,000; Emmanuella Enwerem from New Era Grammar School took second place and received N50,000, while Clinton Omorotionwan From Edo College came third and received N30,000. All the students received gifts from the foundation for their participation.
While, education in public schools in Benin City is free, students sometimes have compulsory fees including examination fees. As such, SIF not only conducts educational events, we also sponsor students through their senior secondary school education. The foundation provides merit-based grants to a small number of students annually to offset these extra costs.
Our first set of students will be graduating soon; they were present at the spelling bee contest and spoke some words of encouragement to the younger students. All the grantees did extremely well in the final exams and will be moving on to university. We are extremely proud of them and look forward to their future success.
We would like to thank all our supporters, guests, students and schools for their support. It was a very educative and fun event and we can’t wait to have it again next year. Although it was a very emotional event for students and attendees alike. The students were very thrilled about the event and everyone is looking forward to next year’s.
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