(This page has been updated for the 2020 Season, for the archived page for 2019, Click Here)
The Nigeria Spelling Bee is open to all students in both public and private schools in Nigeria. All spellers will be asked to spell individually irrespective of the number of spellers from the same school.
Please study these rules and act accordingly for training and practice purposes.
Speller Categories
The Nigeria Spelling Bee is divided into two distinct categories. The Senior and the Junior. These categories are age-based and not based on whether the student is in Primary or Secondary school.
Prizes for the National Champions are listed below. In addition, the 3 best spellers from each category will also win an all-expenses-paid trip to represent Nigeria at the African Spelling Bee.
Senior Category:
- Senior spellers must not be more than 16years as at November 2020 (Please do the necessary calculations).
- Senior spellers must not have passed SS2 or be writing their UTME, WAEC or Senior NECO in the 2020 Academic Session.
- The advised minimum age for the Senior category is 13years (this is not a restriction to younger outstanding spellers).
- Prizes: N1,000,000 Scholarship for the National Senior Champion, N500,000 and N300,000 for the 1st and 2nd Runners-up respectively to any Nigerian Higher Institution.
Junior Category:
- Junior spellers must not be more than 13years as at November 2020 (Please do the necessary calculations).
- The advised minimum age for the Junior category is 9years (this is not a restriction to younger outstanding spellers).
- Prizes: Accumulative Scholarship of N500,000 for the National Junior Champion, N300,000 and N200,000 for the 1st and 2nd Runners-Up respectively to any Nigerian Higher Institution.
- Must attend a Primary or Secondary School in Nigeria.
- Spellers may register under their schools or privately but must supply their school details.
- Spellers must not have passed SS2 or be writing their UTME, WAEC or Senior NECO in the 2020 Academic Session.
- The organizers of the Nigeria Spelling Bee may disqualify, prior to, during, or after the competition, any speller who is not in compliance with any of the Eligibility Requirements, rules of the competition or have supplied false information.
- Registration is online on our e-portal upon the payment of N2,000 (Two Thousand Naira) only per speller.
- Schools registering a group of more than 10 spellers should call 09056624866 or email [email protected] for school discount of 1 free speller per 10 registered spellers.
- All payments should be made to our official bank accounts as displayed on our website. No payment should be made directly to any person claiming to act on behalf of Nigeria Spelling Bee.
- All spellers will be given a unique SPELLER ID on the “Confirmation Page” after submitting the form.
- All Spellers are advised to keep their Proof of Payments and come with same to the competition venue.
- Upon registration, Spellers will be regularly informed about competition dates, time and venue in their state via their phone numbers and email. (Please note that it is the responsibility of the speller/coach to regularly check their emails and our website for updates. Also, deactivate “Do-Not-Disturb” service to ensure delivery of our SMS)
- Spellers shall start competing from the State Qualifier in their respective states. (Note that two or more states may be merged due to low registrations –below 50per state)
- Top Spellers (1 in 20) at the State Qualifiers will participate in the Regional Qualifier in their respective regions.
- Top Spellers at the State Qualifier will be informed of the state of the Regional Qualifier.
- Top Spellers at the Regional Level will participate at the National Finals (Grand Finale)
The qualifiers will have 2 distinct rounds of competition.
Round 1 (Written Spelling Bee)
The first round of all State and Regional contests will be a written Spelling Bee as spellers will be required to write down the correct spelling of words in a card provided for them.
Basic rules of the written round include instructions not to Cancel, Change, Shine or Re-write any letter.
This implies that spellers should not attempt to correct any error on their papers nor shine any letter to make it bold as that will be considered an alteration of the letter. (Coaches are expected to make this clear to spellers).
Round 2 and Above
Round 2 and all subsequent rounds will be elimination rounds using English words only.
For the English words, Spellers are advised to download and study the Study Guide for this season after a successful registration. This will serve as a base guide for spellers to study for the competition.
Finalists will be given additional study materials that will be used at the National Finals.
Spellers are also advised to read and study broadly for the competition.
There may also be a non-elimination round in some states. This is a multi-lingual round using the word list with words from the 3 major languages of Nigeria (Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba).
For the Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo words used in the competition, the Spellers are strongly advised to download and print them to study after submitting the e-Registration form.
Spellers will be asked to spell either a Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba word serially without prejudice and no speller will be given undue advantage
The Indigenous Languages will not be used to eliminate in the State and Regional Qualifiers.
- Spellers are required to be very audible and clear on their spelling.
- Spellers are required to pronounce the word after they have spelt it to indicate that they are through with the spelling. (A speller may be disqualified for not pronouncing the words after spelling within the timeframe).
- A Speller has 60 seconds after saying the first letter of the word, to spell his/her word and pronounce the word.
- It is the right and responsibility of the speller to request the following:
- Re-pronunciation
- Definition,
- the origin of the word,
- sentence example,
- part of speech,
- tense
- alternate pronunciation if alternative pronunciations are available, and within the allowed parameters of the rules
- homonyms: if a word has one or more homonyms, the Pronouncer indicates which word is to be spelt by defining the word
- Spellers are advised to make use of these rights and responsibilities and not rely only on pronunciations.
- A speller can NOT change the order of the letters in a word after pronouncing the letters during spelling.
- Officials may disqualify any contestant who ignores a request to spell his/her word after a reasonable length of time.
- The Spelling Bee will be conducted primarily in English.
- The multi-lingual section of the competition will be conducted using the words on the multi-lingual word list with English translations. It will be a Non-Elimination round at the State and Regional Levels.
- In the event of any complaint, suggestion or need for clarification, such should be directed to the adjudicator.
- Complaints concerning the spelling of a word must be brought up before the end of the current round.
- Both American and British spelling of words will be allowed and the “Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (SOED), Sixth Edition (2007)” will be used in the competition as the final authority for all pronunciations and spellings.
The Officiating Panel will officiate the Spelling Bee and consist of the following members:
- Primary Pronouncer
- Adjudicators
- Program Director
Primary Pronouncer
- Will pronounce will play the pronunciation provided in the computerized audio of the official dictionary “Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (SOED)”
- Assist the spellers by also pronouncing the words that each speller will spell;
- gives the alternate pronunciation (if alternative pronunciations are available, and within the allowed parameters of the rules). This is based on the speller request;
- advises on the following on request: the language of origin of the word, definition, sentence example, part of speech, tenses;
- homonyms: if a word has one or more homonyms, the Pronouncer indicates which word is to be spelt by defining the word.
Adjudicator
- The adjudicator will sit apart from the Pronouncer
- The adjudicator will rule immediately on any disputes raised either by a Participant or an audience member
- The adjudicator will ensure the smooth running of the competition
- assist the Primary Pronouncer by listening to the spelling of the word and determines if it is spelt correctly
- upholds the rules in determining whether or not words are spelt correctly
- works from a Name List that contains the names of all Spellers in the competition
- crosses off the names of all Spellers who are eliminated and submits their numbers
- ensures that Spellers stick to the allocated time (60 seconds) from the time they begin to spell the word
Programme Director
- Manages the proceedings according to the programme
- opens the event
- Introduces the Adjudication Panel and explains the rules to the audience
- Acknowledges the spellers participating
- instructs the audience not to applaud after each contestant has spelt, but only at the end of each Round
- announces the beginning and end of each Round
- hands over proceedings to the Pronouncer
Thank you for studying the rules. If you are eligible and want to register, CLICK HERE
