MOKHOTLONG – The Ministry of Education and Training yesterday postponed to next week a spelling bee for primary school students in Mokhotlong due to the high snowfall in the district that rendered many roads impassable.
According to the ministry’s Education Inspector Motena Mosothoane heavy snowfall over the weekend had compelled them to cancel the event which was supposed to be held at the ministry’s hall.
A spelling bee is a competition in which contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words, usually with a varying degree of difficulty.
She said the decision was made for safety reasons since the 10 schools that had been lined up for the competition were from areas that had received a lot of snowfall. Some of the participating primary schools included Letšeng, Mateanong, Tšepong, Linakaneng and Jorose.
“Asking the pupils to come from areas packed with snow for the spelling bee would have been too risky,” Mosothoane said.
She said some of the participants were very young and thus vulnerable to the cold weather conditions.
“Should the weather conditions improve, we are likely to host the competition next week.
Apart from the spelling bee, the schools were also going to lock horns in a Sesotho language debate on the topic; “Is it wise to turn agricultural fields into residential areas”.
The ministry had convened the spelling bee and debate session for grade five to seven pupils to select at least six best performing pupils out of 60 who would represent the district at the national competition scheduled for September.
The spelling bee and debate session are being sponsored by the Spelling Bee Association of Lesotho. — LENA
