Indian girl wins spelling bee contest in Ghana

An Indian girl, representing Delhi Public School (Ghana), has won this year's national spelling bee contest and will represent that west African nation in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the US later this year.

With her victory, Kushi Jeswani has made DPS Ghana the winners for the second time and will accordingly represent Ghana at the 87th Scripps National Spelling Bee to be held in Washington in the US in May this year, it was reported Wednesday.

Last year, another Indian national from DPS Ghana, Rohit Sahijwani, won the national competition and represented Ghana.

Kushi beat Vishal Thakwani, another Indian, and Destin Kojo Ellis, a Ghanaian and other students of her school to book her place in the international final.

David Raj, the headmaster of the school, said the second time success of the pupils of the school was a testament to the desire to make DPS Ghana a model school in the West Africa region.

"What these pupils have achieved so far is just the tip of the iceberg of what we hope to become in West Africa," he told IANS.

"For the first time, in the history of The Spelling Bee, the top three spellers from the country all emerged from the same school," an enthusiastic Raj said.

He added that "the school's success is based on the fact that it spends more resources on books in order to make the pupils achieve much in their academic pursuits".

DPS Ghana started three years ago and currently has about 385 pupils from 14 countries.

It is once again a matter of great pride and privilege for DPS Ghana to produce the second spelling champion of Ghana consecutively after last year's achievement.

The school's board of governors has decided to donate the prize money received by the school for the top three positions to the visually children who exhibited their acumen in spelling at the national finals.

Impressed by the decision of the school to donate the money to the visually challenged children, founder of DPS Ghana, Mukesh Thakwani said: "The concerted efforts made by these children to participate in the world renowned competition despite their handicap, are indeed praiseworthy."

(Francis Kokutse can be contacted at fkokutse@gmail.com)