The Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE) in collaboration with The Banking Association South Africa, hosted their first ever, District Financial Literacy Spelling Bee Competition, at the Education Leadership Institute in East London on the 10 November 2017, where 15 schools from the East London District participated.

The diagnosis of the ECDoE 2014 ANA and the 2015/16 End-of-Year Provincial results, indicated that learners are still not performing satisfactorily in basic literacy skills, especially in reading and comprehension.  To support learners to improve their proficiency, the GET Curriculum directorate is piloting the first District Financial Literacy Spelling Bee Competition for Grade 7 learners in the BCM Education District.

Mvelenhle Yaka, Manager of Financial Education at The Banking Association South Africa, welcomed and thanked the learners for practicing so hard for the competition, Yaka went on further to say’ “We are here to demonstrate your excellence.” Yaka concluded by saying: “We are hoping to roll out this program to all the Education Districts in the near future.”

With round one underway each learner got a different financial related word to spell e.g. affirmative, accounting, repayment, usury, volatile, reputation, custodian etc. The first round was nerve wracking and saw 6 learners being eliminated and 24 learners moved on to round 2.

Round 3 took a turn, where learners now either got a word or a phrase, which they had to not only spell, but also give the definition. This round saw a total of 7 learners being eliminated. In round 4, the remaining contestants each got the same word, “Administration”, where they had to correctly spell the word and give the definition of the word, most learners spelt the word correctly but could not identify the meaning of the word.

With a nail biting 8 rounds, position one, two and three were correctly identified, and announced as follows:

1. Lona Dunga from Aquavista Primary School
2. Vuyolwethu Madlebe Aquavista Primary School
3. Lisakhanya Mzimgayi Cambridge Primary school

Lindelwa Damane, coordinator for the program, from the Provincial Office in Zwelitsha, ended off the occasion by saying, “I am blown away by this event today.” Damane said, “I would like to give my sincere gratitude to each and every person that was involved and truly committed themselves in making this event a success today.” She concluded by saying, “This event would not have been a success without your 100% support.”  Most importantly she thanked the VIP’s of the day, which were the learners for the achievement they have made this far and was so proud that they participated in the first Competition of its kind in the Eastern Cape.