By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C.,July 18, 2023 — During the early years after I introduced the Scripps National Spelling Bee to The Bahamas in 1998, on several occasions I suggested that the Ministry of Education should establish Spelling Bee Clubs in schools in the country and schedule competitions among schools in the same manner as with sports.
In a previous column in BAHAMAS CHRONICLE, I made this suggestion to the then Minister of Education Jeff Lloyd, who over the years has demonstrated a deep interest in and commitment to the holistic educational development of young Bahamians.
This was before he lost his seat in the House of Assembly and his party, the Free National Movement, was replaced as the government of The Bahamas after losing by a landslide to the Progressive Liberal Party on September 16, 2021.
I am now making the same suggestion to the current Minister of Education and Technical and Vocational Training, the Hon. Glenys Hanna-Martin. Surely, establishing Spelling Bee Clubs in our schools is long overdue, and Minister Hanna-Martin should make doing so one of her top priorities over the summer, so that Spelling Bee Clubs can become a reality shortly after the new school year begins in September.
The Minister has on her management team two individuals to whom I suggest she assigns this project to posthaste. Both Yamacraw MP Zane Lightbourne, Minister of State in the Ministry of Education and Technical and Vocational Training, and Ricardo P. Deveraux, Deputy Permanent Secretary at The Ministry of Education and Technical and Vocational Training, Bahamas, are extremely impressive in the ongoing promotion of education in their frequent posts on Facebook. They can be assisted by Cylestina Cooper-Williams, BNSB Chairperson and National Spelling Bee Coordinator, who is also employed by the Ministry of Education and Technical and Vocational Training.
If the clubs cannot be inculcated in the regular curricular, then I suggest they be introduced an after-school activity, meeting twice a week for an hour or two under the supervision of an English teacher. In the same that basketball players and swimmers hone their skills during after-school hours, spellers can likewise hone their spelling skills after regular school hours. Certainly, The Bahamas’ immediate goal going forward should be to replicate the excellent performance of Roy Seligman, who advanced to the semi-finals along with 47 others in the 2022 Scripps Bee.
This was the best performance by a Bahamian speller ever since the BNSB started sending a spelling champion to compete in the highly prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. in 1998, The Bahamas’ champion previously had failed to advance beyond the early rounds of the competition each year, a symptom that clearly suggested there was a need to change the manner in which spellers are prepared for this highly competitive competition.
By contrast, except for the past several years, Jamaica’s champion was perennially among the finalists, and its 1998 champion, Jody-Anne Maxwell, made history when she became the first non-American to win the competition at the age of 12. This also was the year that The Bahamas participated in the Scripps Bee for the first time, but although Dominique Higgins of Jordan Prince William High School was very competitive in the early rounds, he was eliminated in the fourth round.
Unfortunately, Jamaica did not have a contestant in this year’s Scripps Bee for reasons that are still unknown. Jamaica champions were sponsored by The Jamaica Gleaner, one of Jamaica’s leading newspapers, so it could very well be that management of The Gleaner decided that the newspaper would no longer sponsor the Bee.
Apparently, a similar decision was made by The Nassau Guardian, which did not support the BNSB competition this year. However, with the Ministry of Education and Technical and Vocational Training as the primary sponsor, The Bahamas continued its participation in the Scripps Bee.
It would certainly be a sad, sad day for the state of education in The Bahamas if we stop participating in the Scripps National Spelling Bee because of a lack of funding. If The Guardian has made its decision to stop sponsoring the BNSB permanent, a committee should be established to raise funds on an ongoing basis to keep this very important program as a permanent aspect of our educational system.
Certainly, philanthropists like Sebas Bastian, co-owner of the gaming enterprise Island Luck, who has used his numbers game expertise amass a personal fortune, should be approached about the possibility of becoming an permanent sponsor of the BNSB.
As the person responsible for introducing the Scripps National Spelling Bee to The Bahamas when I was Editor of the Nassau Guardian in 1998, with strong support from the then Minister of State for Education Dion Foulkes, I was very much involved in the preparations for the annual Bahamas National Spelling Bee during the early years.
Under the supervision of Dr. Olga Clarke of the Ministry of Education, dedicated members of the Bahamas National Spelling Bee Committee each year organized competitions at all levels of our school system, starting with in-school competitions throughout The Bahamas and subsequently regional competitions leading up to the national finals to select an overall champion to represent The Bahamas at the Scripps Bee.
In the early years, Grand Bahama produced a disproportionate number of our spelling champions due in no small measure to the leadership provided by Daphne Barr, an education officer with the Ministry of Education. I would once again like to see some of the committed educators in Grand Bahama duplicate her stellar efforts in promoting the BNSB and giving full support to my suggestion that we establish Spelling Bee Clubs in our schools.
