DAWN in Education - Spelling Bee

In 1998, DAWN became the first newspaper in Pakistan (and so far the only one) to launch a Newspaper in Education Programme (NIE). Such Programmes are widely practiced by leading newspapers in Europe, North and South America and Asia.

Spelling bees organised worldwide are a common phenomenon at both regional and national levels in various countries. A Spelling Bee is essentially a spelling competition amongst school children and is organised at school level. Winners then participate in a regional / national inter school-spelling contest. As part of DAWN In Education Programme, DAWN conducted the first ever National Spelling Championship in Pakistan in Jan-Feb 2005.

Phonetics Workshop 2009

The most thrilling DAWN in Education Spelling Bee Championship to date which started on 27th January, 2009 and came to an end on 20th February, 2009 left the audiences amazed in all three regions. Over 630 schools participated from throughout the country, in an extremely competitive and engaging contest. The competition was viewed by thousands of people as live audiences. The competition shall also be televised shortly as a 4 series program on DAWN News TV Channel.
Almost 120 schools participated from the Islamabad Region of which 20 were from outstations such as Kharian, Kohat, Mirpur, Muzzarafabad, Peshawar etc and 100 from the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. There were 142 schools from the Lahore Region. 93 schools of these were from Lahore and 49 schools from other cities of Punjab namely Faisalabad, Multan, Sialkot, Okara, Hafizabad, Layyah, Jhang etc. A total of 368 schools participated from the Karachi Region of which 48 schools were from areas like Hyderabad, Thatta, Ranipur, Quetta etc while the rest from Karachi.
The National Championship was held in Karachi on February 20th, 2009. The drama at the nationals hyped up when some of the winners from last year secured positions as National Champions of the competition and others found tough competition in maintaining theirs.

• In the 9-11 age group Laiba Ejaz of Roots School System, DHA Campus, Islamabad was 1st Runner up in last years National Championship and became National Champion this year.

• Nimra Farooq from Army Public School (Girls), Azam Garrison, Lahore was 2nd Runner Up in the 9-11 age group in the Lahore Regional Championship last year and worked up to become the 2nd Runner Up in the National Championship this year.

• The National Champion for the age group 12-14, Amna Ahmed from Generations School, Karachi, was the 2nd runner up in last year’s National Championship for the same age group.

• M. Zuhair Murad from Aitchison College, Lahore was the National Champion in the 12-14 age group in last years contest and became the Lahore Regional Champion for the same category this year.

• In the 15-17 age group National Champion Samrah Jamil from The City School, Senior Girls North Nazimabad Campus, Karachi was the 1st Runner up in the age group 12-14 of the National Championship last year.

The winners of the 5th DAWN in Education Spelling Bee 2009 are as follows:



9-11 Age Group Laiba Ejaz Roots School System, DHA, Islamabad	12-14 Age Group Amna Ahmad Generation’s School- Main Branch, Karachi	15-17 Age Group Samrah Jamil The City School Senior Girls North Nazimabad Branch, Karachi