Young Educators Foundation, organisers of The Spelling Bee Ghana is proud to announce that 115 Spellers have advanced to the Final Stage of the 2022 edition of the national competition.

This year over 500 Spellers across Ghana took part in the preliminary stage of the competition, however, 173 finalists proved their mettle and made it to the semi-finals with 115 advancing to the National Finals after an impressive bout of spelling on Saturday 31st July 2021. 

Most of the Spellers were from Accra and Tema with Spellers from Obuasi, Kenyasi, Keta, Kpando, and Peduase joining the competition for the first time. 

Our experience in 2020 and 2021 has better prepared us for The Spelling Bee 2022, thus, this edition has been 75% online driven and in line with Covid19 protocols, some Spellers had the opportunity to spell from the comfort of their homes at the Semi-Finals. 

Out of the 115 finalists, 92 are first-time Spellers and 23 are returning Spellers who’ve made a comeback with the hopes of grabbing the enviable bragging rights as The Spelling Bee 2022 National Champion.

The 2022 National Finalists were selected based on their performance on an online vocabulary test worth 20 marks and spelling worth 5 marks at the Semi-Finals stage. 

Every year, The Spelling Bee rewards Spellers who excel in the vocabulary test and a new title; The Black Drone has been introduced to celebrate these high performing Spellers.

At the Semi-Finals, 26 Spellers were declared the Black Drones of this year’s competition with three Spellers; Aarna Tailor (Speller 130), Brian Sarpong (Speller 138), and Raiyyan Saddique (Speller 165) securing a perfect score at the end of the day. 

Commenting on this year’s performance, Chief Executive Officer of Young Educators Foundation Miss Eugenia Tachie-Menson said: 

“Since this edition began, we have only interacted with our spellers online and we were looking forward to hosting our first in-person competition of the year. We are very proud of all the 173 Semi-Finalists, many of whom stood on stage for the first time ever. 

Our 115 National Finalists will soon begin preparations towards the finals taking place in February 2022. This edition happens to mark 15 years of unraveling literacy at The Spelling Bee and there will be an official launch in September 2021. We invite all stakeholders to keep an eye on our social media handles; we’re preparing some exciting activities!” 

The National Finals will be held in February 2022. From now till the Grand Finale, Spellers will undergo intensive virtual training to improve their spelling, increase their vocabulary, understand word concepts and develop English usage as well as essential skills like self-confidence and public speaking.