Sixty-four students have been selected as the semi-finalists in the on-going National Spelling Bee Completion and Quiz Contest held at Cape Coast on Thursday.

The 8th Edition of the competition was keenly contested by about 200 refined spellers from over 50 primary and Junior High Schools (JHS) from the Ashanti, Volta and Greater Accra Regions.

They were each presented with certificates whilst a special citation was given to Jessica Akapu, a nine year-old pupil of the De-Youngsters school in the Volta Region, for the most outstanding student prize.

The winners would battle it out at the grand finale in December to select national candidates for the African Spelling Bee Competition, schedule to take place next year.

The overall winner at the grand finale would be presented with a championship trophy, certificate, savings Account, educational electronic gadgets, sets of books and a year’s media publicity.

Mrs Juliana Quist, Events Manager of Edupro Concepts, said they were inspired by the singular need to improve upon the communication, reading and writing skills of students to have strong command of the English Language.

This, she said, was necessary to boost the children’s confidence and to help them master the art of public speaking in preparation for the future.

“We believe in sharpening the intellect of the pupils to increase their vocabulary, understand word concepts and develop the concept of speaking excellent English Language in their daily endeavours.”

Mrs Quist encouraged the winners not to rest on their oars but learn hard to excel in their academic pursuits.

Reverend Paa Kesse, Head Pastor, Bethel Assemblies of God at Ola, a suburb of Cape Coast, who chaired the programme praised all the participants for their hard work and urged them to go all out to fly high the flag of Ghana.

The Reverend Minister also charged parents to support their children to read to unearth their potentials, while instilling moral values in their wards so they could grow to be good citizens.

He said the competition was not all about winning but there was so much to learn from the experiences.

He described the competition as good training for students to understand the use of words and not only to memorize, adding that children from Ghana were as capable as their colleagues from around the world.

Present at the gathering were enthusiastic parents, teachers and students who cheered in joy and ecstasy when the results were declared as others shed tears of joy.