The Spelling Bee (commonly called The Spelling Bee Ghana or TSB) is an annual spelling bee held in Ghana since 2007.
The competition is run by a not-for-profit charity founded by Ghanaian Entrepreneur, CEO of the Young Educators Foundation, Eugenia Tachie-Menson, Programmes Manager, Salomé Dzakpasu, School Coordinator, Johnson Appiah and assisted by a team of educators, professionals, and volunteers.
The Spelling Bee targets students between ages of 7-13, The Spelling Bee builds their capacity on the rudiments of spelling and English language usage.
The Spelling Bee is a franchise of Scripps National Spelling Bee run in the United States.
Since its inception, the winners of the competition have represented Ghana at the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee.
History
The Spelling Bee began in 2007 with only six schools taking part. Maria Isabel Kubabom from SOS Herman Gmeiner School, Tema won the first edition by successfully spelling “Denigratory” and proceeded to the USA to represent Ghana in the international competition.
Maria's appearance at the 80th Scripps National Spelling Bee made history as the first time an African participated in this international contest. For over a decade and a half, Ghana has continued to be the only African Country participating in this prestigious global spelling competition.
The Spelling Bee has evolved; for instance, since March 2020, at the start of the 16th edition, the 4-tiered spelling program has been conducted both virtually and in-person, with the Preliminaries, Quarter-Finals being done virtually and the Semi-Finals and National-Finals taking place in-person.
Originally with only a slot at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, since 2022, The Spelling Bee has secured two additional slots where two high-performing spellers (known in the competition jargons as Yellow Bees) join the Champion for the Scripps Bee.
History-making Spellers
Maria Kubabom: 1st ever champion (2008) Philemon Awan: 1st Champion from Ho (2012) Afua Ansah: 1st speller from Ghana to make it to the Scripps Bee finals (2016) Shifa Amankwa-Gabbey: 1st champion from Kumasi and 1st Speller to appear on CNN’s African Voices (2018) Kwabena Darko-Asare: made it to the top 100 at the Scripps Bee (2019) N’Adom Darko-Asare: won the competition for two consecutive years (2022 & 2023) Mychelle Kumah: made it to the semi-finals at the Scripps Bee (2023)
Partners and Sponsors
The Spelling Bee has been sponsored and supported over the years by Ghana Education Service, Indomie Ghana, MTN Ghana, US Embassy in Ghana, USAID, MultiChoice Ghana, Kenya Airways, GOIL, Ashesi University, Rufus, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Foundation, Citi 97.3 FM/Citi TV, Business and Financial Times, Scripps National Spelling Bee and many others.