LAHORE: The Pakistan Spelling Bee (pakistanspellingbee.com) competition in English and Urdu languages is being held from September to November.

Over 70 schools and over 2,000 children from Grade III to VIII will participate in the inaugural event to be held in Lahore from Sept 30 to Oct 1 at the DHA Phase-8 branch of a private school, says a press release.

The Pakistan Spelling Bee inaugural Lahore event will be followed by similar events inKarachi, Peshawar and Islamabad, with both public and private institutions represented.

The finale will be held in Islamabad in November, in which teams from all over Pakist an will participate; first, second and third place winners will be announced for each of the six participating grades in both English and Urdu language competitions.

Musharraf Ali Faroogi, the cofounder of Storykit, said inclusivity was his aim from the project and it was achieved by including Urdu Spelling Bee and making successful outreach to public schools. The Urdu Spelling Bee rules, which are the first of their kind, were devised under the guidance of Urdu lexicographer Professor Abdur Rasheed, andexplain how to spell letters and sounds of the Urdu alphabets.

Spelling Bee competitions are known worldwide to develop a love of language in children and improve their academic performance, Faroogi said and added that Spelling Bees also aimed at benefitting children by allowing them to compete in a supportive environment, which developed their self-confidence and communication and public speaking skills. He said the Pakistan Spelling Bee`s inaugural event would be a milestone for the company and the events in Karachi, Peshawar and Islamabad would be larger in scope and reach.

The board of advisers for the Pakistan Spelling Bee includes noted educationists Faisal Bari,former dean of the LUMS School of Education, Ainee Shahzad Salim, former director of studies, Karachi Grammar School, Ismat Riaz, educationist and curriculum developer, and Professor Sajjad Haider, director of Indus Foundation for Human Development.

The lead sponsors of the Pakistan Spelling Bee include European Union while the collaborative partner organisations include the LUMS School of Education, Oxford University Press Pakistan, the Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers (SPELT), and the Kinnaird College for Women whose faculty and students, among others, will be performing the role of pronouncers for the Lahore competition.