Premier and cluster schools may yet have an edge, as NURJEHAN MOHAMED and MOHD NOOR ASWAD discovered on the last leg of the RHB-NST Spell-It-Right Challenge IT was a triumph for the cluster and premier schools in the Federal Territory leg of the RHB-New Straits Times Spell-It-Right Challenge. SMK(L) Methodist (still popularly known as MBS), SMK Victoria (VI) and SMK Convent Bukit Nanas (CBN), categorised as premier and cluster schools, swept the top three positions in the schools category, while the top three individual positions were won by students from MBS, VI and the Royal Military College (RMC). “Premier” schools are schools that have been around for 80 years or more, while “cluster” schools are those chosen by the Ministry of Education to be “centres of excellence”. Malaysia’s first nationwide spelling competition attracted the attention of some 20 of the country’s 60 cluster schools, and 17 of 48 premier ones. Students from these schools who have qualified to compete in the national SIR finals in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 9 include Kashwini Arumugam of SK(P) Methodist, Pahang; Vikram A.R. Ramachandran of SMK King George V (KGV), Negri Sembilan; and Jeremiah Thomas P. Koshy of SK Sultan Sulaiman 1, Terengganu. KGV also has the distinction of having been the best performing school at the Negri Sembilan state challenge. Cluster and premier schools also figured in Kelantan, with SK Zainab 1 in Kelantan reaching the top three. But it was a surprisingly different story elsewhere. In Perak, for instance, the esteemed Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) failed to make it past the preliminary rounds. SIR content committee chairman and chief presenter Rehman Rashid, an alumnus of MCKK, professed to being shocked. “They were fifth-formers, but seemed terribly unlucky with the words they were given. Three of them couldn’t get their first words right.” The MCKK team’s unceremonious ouster contrasted with the better performance of teams from two of the other schools from Kuala Kangsar, SMK Raja Perempuan Kalsom and SMK Sayong, both of which had contestants progressing to later rounds. “This contest has revealed that there’s much less of a gulf between so-called ‘prestige’ schools and the rest,” says Rehman. “This is heartening at a national level, but perhaps less so for the big-name schools that aren’t keeping up.” In the FT challenge, Liew Ern Khai of MBS won the championship after a nail-biting tie-breaker where he correctly spelt “meteorological”, “juxtaposition” and “lackadaisical”. His school also won the top school title by a wide margin over VI and CBN, which had to battle for second place. Liew’s opponent, Ulya Aqamah Husamudin from RMC, had to settle for second place after correctly spelling “prevaricate” and “pretentious” but stumbling on “resuscitate”. VI’s Lai Yit Nian came in third on correctly spelling “matriculation” but missing “saboteur”. The drama and gravity of the contest was not lost on parents, teachers and casual spectators. Abdulla Mohamed Al-Montser, the Yemen ambassador to Malaysia, who was in the audience, described the event as “fantastic for school kids”. “You should have this more often,” he said. “It is a good experience for the students to stand in front of an audience and do this, as it will help build confidence.” Another onlooker, Samar Abdullah, 20, who had witnessed similar competitions in Britain and the United States, firmly believed that spelling competitions were good for students. “They boost a student’s self-esteem,” she said. “When contestants get the spelling right, that is a good feeling.” Parent Habibah Yaakob, 38, hoped to see more schools participating in future editions of SIR, to give more exposure to the students. “Students get the exposure of being in front of an audience and at the same time improve their English and vocabulary,” she said. Teacher Sharmini Rajendran, 31, of SK Seri Hartamas considered the competition to be beneficial for her students, one of whom — Nadeem Kamarul Bahren — made it to the state finals. “This competition has created a lot of interest at school and many students wanted to participate,” said Rajendran. “This is how we encourage students to learn English, because this makes English fun and interesting.”
