Annual National Inter School Spelling Contest

The Event

The event will be a 20 day long program commencing on the 1st of Jume till the 20th of Lune. In order to give the spelling contest a new trend and the participation of more students from the Public Schools, GAA is planning to make it a one month long program. Participants from secondary and primary are eligible to apply.

However as our theme for the 40th anniversary of GAA is Empowering Youth for Service, we will be focusing on the students who have not had much exposure. This contest is a competition both for juniors and seniors; all interested schools (private and public level) both from within and out of the valley are eligible for the competition.

This year if the participating schools are in number outside the valley, the Coordinators with their committee and a senior supervisor will be heading to the various places. There, we will be holding a spelling contest with a pre- programmed schedule and contest rounds. The winners from different place will be declared as the Aishwarya Shield Regional/ Champions We will be visiting the schools outside the valley from early April and the Spelling Contest in the will commence from mid of April for the preliminary rounds.

COMPETITION STRUCTURE FOR THE NATIONAL LEVEL

There are five regional competitions, based on the geographical division used for regional champions. The GAA Spelling Committee reserves the right to reassign schools to the various regions based on the number of schools competing, facilities, staffing, etc. Notices will be mailed by April 30th indicating which region schools are assigned to. If you do not receive a letter by June. 1st, call 441-4785 / 9841564364. On each grade level, a regional winner is determined at a run off according to the procedures given above. The 5 regional winners compete on June. 20, 2008 to determine the national champions at each grade level. Regional competitions may be determined by number of schools participating, weather, location and other variables. Time of the competition is to be determined by the host principal and the regional GAA representative. National Finals shall be on June. 20 - Check aishwaryashield.com.np for all sites and times.

2.5. Approach

Over a hundred schools will be approached and invitation will be sent to take part in the contest including all the past participated schools and new schools. We expect that more than 50 schools in the minimum to take part in the primary and secondary level spelling contest.

2.5.1 Selection

The selection of the candidates will be done by the respective schools The private schools as well as the public schools will select their candidates for the spelling contest.. Once the selection process has been complete the respective schools shall give the names of the students to the GAA office.

2.5.2 Training/Mentoring

Once the selection or the selection for the criteria of Participation or eligibility according to the rule no 8 has been made by the GAA, the organizing committee members along with the volunteers from GAA will be training and mentoring the students from the fresh private schools and government schools for the contest.

Training/mentoring will be done for the fresh/new schools of the valley once the names have been submitted to the GAA office. The GAA office will contact various Private Boarding Schools for the training/mentoring particular i.e. fresh/new private/public school who will be guided by the organizing committee along with the volunteers at GAA in the GAA Hall itself or in their own respective schools.

2.5.3 Forming Partnership between Private and Public Schools

Forming partnership between private and public schools and providing training for the fresh schools will be possible only when we get all the help and support from the participating schools.

Once the names have been submitted to the GAA office, the GAA office will be contacting various Private Boarding Schools to mentor the students coming from the Public schools Once the contact has been made, GAA office will make arrangements as to which students should mentor and guide which private boarding schools. Both the Private school and the Public school will be taking part as a combined team in the training. . A private School will be approached to coach a particular public school who will be guided by the volunteers at GAA in the GAA Hall itself or in their own respective schools.

The training will be done from Monday to Thursday under the guidance of the officials from GAA i.e. organizing committee along with the volunteers on a timely basis for about a fortnight or only one session. The official dictionary for the training and also for the contest will be Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, 7th edition.

There will be two levels of contest one for high school (classes 7 to 10) and primary schools (classes 3 to 6) and four rounds per game. But the number of rounds to be played will alter later.

2.5.4 District wise selection by GAA

The coordinators along with their committee and a senior supervisor will be heading to the various places if the participating schools outside the valley are in number. There, we will be holding a spelling contest with a pre- programmed schedule and contest rounds. We will be visiting the schools outside the valley from early May and the Spelling Contest in the will commence from the early May.

The contest for the schools outside the valley will be most probably taking in two places in each region outside the valley. Hence ten different places of Nepal will be approached. The probable suitable places are Jhapa, Dharan or Tehrathum in Eastern Development Region, Ramechaap and Dhading in Central Region, Pokhara, Syangha, Beni in Western Region, Bardiya and Rolpa in Mid Western Region, Kanchenpur and kaillai in Far Western region for a week. This will be conducted district wise in a particular school most probably missionary school or Jesuit organization.

The teams will be notified about the venue, the date and the time of the contest. The teams will be selected through a mini spelling and written contest. Once the selection has been made, the teams will qualify for the Preliminary round which will be held in GAA hall.

2.5.6 Venue

The Preliminary round, quarter finals and semi finals will be conducted at the GAA premises, thamel. The Venue for the finals will be notified to all participants during the quarter finals in the valley.
For the schools outside the valley there will be the preliminary Quarter, Semi Final and the Final round which will be taking place in the notified places itself like missionary or the Jesuit organizations.

2.5.7 Grand Finale
To honor the grand finale we will have some renowned person to be the chief guest, who will give away the prizes and certificates to the participants.