Digicel’s Sergin John-Baptiste presenting the Spelling Bee winner Patriyana Auguste with her prize.
In commemoration of International Francophonie Day (Journee Internationale de la Francophonie), Digicel St Lucia partnered with the Saint Lucia National Commission for UNESCO through the support of the 2014 Secondary Schools Francophonie Spelling Bee competition.
This year’s competition was won by the Soufriere Comprehensive Secondary School, Form Two representative Patriyana Auguste.
The National Cultural Center came alive on March 21, 2014 as the Saint Lucia National Commission for UNESCO and the Ministry of Education, Human Resource Development & Labour hosted their annual Secondary Schools Francophonie Spelling Bee competition.
A total of 19 secondary schools from around the island participated in an 11-round French spelling competition. The highlight of the national programme of activities for this year is the Secondary Schools Francophonie Spelling Bee, themed ‘Francophonie et jeunes talents.’
The spelling competition provided each student an opportunity to showcase their linguistic skills, commencing with a warm up practice spelling round and then into the formal competition, where each student received one chance to spell a French word within 30 seconds. Students who spelt their word incorrectly through any of the 11 rounds were automatically eliminated from the competition.
For the past five years, the St Mary’s College Secondary school has been the undefeated champions of the Francophonie Spelling Bee competition.
Christian Joseph, a Form Two student of the school, kept his cool throughout the competition, and ended up as one of the two finalist who battled for supremacy. Soufriere Comprehensive Secondary schools, Patriyana Auguste was relentless in the finals as she effortlessly spelt all words correctly and emerged victorious as the 2014 Secondary Schools Francophonie Spelling Bee champion.
Digicel St Lucia donated a Samsung galaxy Tab, Kindle Fire and Nextus tablet to the first, second and third place winners respectfully.
Patriyana Auguste the 2014 champion dethroned St Mary’s College Christian Joseph who came in at second place. In third place was Entrepot Secondary school student Lauralyn Limery.
“Digicel was delighted to be part of the 2014 Secondary Schools Francophonie Spelling Bee competition,” said Sergin John Baptiste, Public Relation and Communications Executive. “We recognise that the competition provides students with the practice needed to improve their vocabulary, spelling and memory skills of a foreign language. The competition pushes participants to achieve success at the highest level, never to give up and continue to motivate them to excel at a foreign language.”
Digicel would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Soufriere Comprehensive Secondary School for their achievement in winning this year’s Secondary Schools Francophonie Spelling Bee competition.