NewZNew (Chandigarh) : This week, the online semi finals of Classmate Spell Bee Season 7, India’s largest spelling competition, were conducted for the city of Chandigarh. Classmate and Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM launched season 7 of ‘Classmate Spell Bee 2014’ four months back. Classmate, one of India’s leading notebook brands by ITC, believes that each child is unique. Inspired by this belief, the theme for this year ‘Every child is unique and so is every word’ has been built around Classmate’s brand philosophy of celebrating uniqueness. Classmate Spell Bee Season 7 has been a huge success already and continues to create waves amongst the country’s young geniuses, while giving them the opportunity to follow their heart’s true calling. This year we saw some of the most talented spellers participate in the third level of the competition in an online test and Jaskirat Dhillon from Hansraj Public School, Chandigarh emerged as the winner. Jaskirat Dhillon will now be in contention to compete in the National Finals of the competition.
The initial round of the competition received an outstanding response. Chandigarh is one of the 30 cities in which such semi finals were conducted. In the initial phase, an on-ground exercise was conducted across 26 schools in Chandigarh where children were given spelling tests. Top 15 scorers from each school then competed in the city finals round. The top performers from the city finals then competed in the Semi Final stage of the competition.
The culmination of Classmate Spell Bee Season 7 will see a grueling competition between the top 16 scorers of India to win the title of India’s Spell Bee Champion. The top 16 participants of the competition will compete in the National Finals of the competition to be telecast on National Television on The Discovery Channel, Discovery Kids and Discovery Tamil.
[blockquote author=”Mr. Chand Das, Chief Executive, ITC’s Education and Stationery Products Business said” pull=”pullright”]”Classmate has always endeavored to recognize, nurture & celebrate the uniqueness of every child. Classmate Spell Bee Season 7 has taken Classmate’s brand thought of celebrating uniqueness further as it gives students yet another opportunity to identify and showcase their distinctive talents and skills on a nationwide platform. Classmate Spell Bee Season 7 builds on the scale we achieved last year having reached out to an even larger number students across schools and cities in India, through the school contact program coupled with the novel mobile app and dedicated website helping engage students. The brand promises to support a child’s dreams with an equally unique and world class set of stationery products like notebooks, writing, drawing, art and math instruments.”[/blockquote]
Mr. Hitesh Sharma, Executive President, Entertainment Network (India) Limited said, “Spell Bee has grown beyond being a just competition for school children and today is proud of celebrating its seventh season with the children of India. We, at Radio Mirchi find it heartening to see the manner in which the property grows not just in scale but also in popularity amongst the student fraternity. Fresh talent each year has dazzled us with performances that reinstate the belief that our students have the potential of competing on an international level and are second to none. The next few stages of the competition including the televised National Finals promise to be extremely exciting as we will see only the best students from Indian schools going head to head. Spell Bee endeavors to add value to a student’s development in its true sense.”
Mr. Abhishek Anand, Marketing Manager & Mr. Himavan Singh Dahiya, Brand Manager from the Marketing Team at ITC’s ESPB have leveraged this multi layered engagement platform to drive engagement and participation, to build on Classmate’s brand thought and take it to the next level. Unlike previous seasons, this year, the Spell Bee experience is extended through the entire year by creating learning modules, tests, interactive blogs and contests through the year for students to remain connected to art of spellings and making it possible for them to qualify for the next season as well. The focus this year is to create a holistic educative experience for participants.
Classmate believes in encouraging children to excel in the field of their choice and Classmate Spell Bee Season 7 has served to build this thought on ground, inspiring school students to identify and showcase their spelling skills through the competition.
The National Champion of Classmate Spell Bee Season 7 will win a grand prize of Rs. 2,00,000/- apart from the opportunity to witness the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee with a parent in Washington D.C., U.S.A. in an all expenses paid trip. The 4 semi finalists will win a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 each. The grand prize for the winner of Classmate Spell Bee Season 7 and those for the semi-finalists have been specifically designed and sponsored by Classmate to help encourage and enable students to follow their hearts true calling.
Air India a member of the Star Alliance is the official travel partner for Classmate Spell Bee Season 7 and will fly the National champion and a parent to witness the Scripps National Spelling Bee held at Washington D.C. in 2015. The competition this year is presented by Classmate; powered by The Times of India and is in association with Seven Seas and Air India. Times NIE are education partners on the property.