ISLAMABAD: The 12th Dawn in Education Spelling Bee competition startedonMondayinwhich185schools and 1,600 students from the north of the country are participating.

Participants have been divided into three age groups of 9-11, 12-14 and 15-17 and on the first of the fourday event, a contest was held between children between the ages of nine and 11 at Islamabad Club`s auditorium.

Teams of children from the other two age groups will compete on the other days till Thursday and after the elimination round, participants will compete individually. A winner, first and second runners up will be announcedforeachage group.

A large number of students, parents and teachers attended the competition and applauded and encouraged contestants.

Participants are given 40 seconds to spell a word and in the first 20 seconds of that time, the contestant can ask for the word to be pronounced multiple times and its meaning explained.

During the rounds, students would ask for a difficult word to be pronounced many times so they have time to discuss the spelling with the team before spelling it out.

Though participants were loudlyencouraged by the audience, they were expected to keep very quiet once the students started to spell.

Students utilised their break times learning spellings from booklets and preparing for the competition.

`This is a good opportunity to learn and boost our confidence,` said Shanzay Atta, a student of DHA-I Education System.Zoraiz Ahmed and Azmeer Khan from Army Public School Abbottabad also said the event was a great learning opportunity.

The first Spelling Bee Championship under the Dawn-in-Education programme was conducted in 2005. The event is aimed at helping students improve their spelling, increase their vocabulary and learn new concepts.