Getting lost in the pages

Spelling is improved when more reading is done.
Ester Kamati
Michelline Nawatises

The First Lady of Namibia Monica Geingos provided the last of the three mentorship sessions with the learners at the KAYEC Trust after-school centre.

Since the initial visit in March 2019, Geingos has returned to the trust to provide monthly mentorship sessions. Moreover, to promote a culture of reading among learners, she, alongside the learners, are holding a Readathon and Spelling Bee Competition. Thus far the Office of the First Lady has donated 52 books to the after-school centre. There are approximately 83 learners at the after-school centre and the books are age appropriate and diverse in subject matter.

Geingos made mention of the importance of these type of competitions. She asked the boys who were present in the spelling room to stand up and promise her the following: “FLON, I promise that I am going to make an effort to read books in order for my spelling to improve and I am not going to use spelling to write love letters to the girls but to write full sentences.”

She further mentioned what she is trying to promote together with the trust is the culture of reading. She asked the learners if they ever imagined dreaming about their big houses or cars. “Reading more books is good for your imagination as it aids creativity and to understand logical reasoning,” she said.

The Spelling Bee competition took place on 9 August. It comprised of learners per grade category competing. The categories were grades 2-3, 4-5, 6-7 and 8-9. The readathon was also held prior to the spelling bee competition at the KAYEC Trust and the purpose of it is to create a culture of accountability and support within the learners. The top six learners shared book reviews with the audience.

There were 24 learners who took part in the competition. The schools which were present were Hage Geingob High School, Moses van der Byl Primary School, Elim Primary School, Eros Girls schools and more. Amenenge Negumbo, a learner from Hage Geingob School mentioned the importance of spelling bees. “You get to improve on your vocabulary and in the same vein add more words to it,” she said.