Mzansi Spelling Bee 3.87

At the heart of the Mzansi Spelling bee is a desire to main stream literature and the love of words. If South Africa is serious about turning the tide on what is a literacy crisis we must break every rule that has come before us and find ways to reach out to the hearts and minds of not only South Africa's children but to every single parent, teacher, adult and citizen. We need to act quickly and help restore the value and stature of words, language and books.

In today's fast changing world we have very little to offer our children as tools for the future. The love of words and education is the only tool we can offer them to be able to navigate a world that will be vastly different from our own.

Being illiterate in today's world is possibly the most oppressive and abuse states of being. You are essentially be left out of the world, unable to access the tools or language of the world.

This is an opportunity for South African to act today in a way that will dramatically shape and brighten the future of our children.

The Spelling bee is part of a movement, a growing subculture to mainstream spelling and literacy. Through the Mzansi spelling bee and its various components we are working to make spelling, reading and books cool and part of the everyday experience of families, children and communities.
Ours it to take reading and literacy our of the class room and make it ubiquitous and valued in South Africa.

At the centre of the Mzansi Spelling bee is a national competition for children ages 9 to 14 or grades 4 to 8. children from all over South Africa meet in community halls, class rooms, theatres and through stages of an interactive, challenging and fun game they compete to the crowned Mzansi's Speller of the year.

the Mzansi Spelling bee was born following the national literacy assessment conducted by the Department of Education which said South Africa's numeracy and literacy levels for grade 5 children was t 35%. This is more than a number - it says in every class room of 10 children, 6 of them a sitting unable to grasp what is being taught because they can not read. This is not only a shame, it is a violation of children's sense of self, of their humanity and will break them in the long run.

Mzansi Spelling bee is an effort by young people to play a part, to do something in the wake of a disaster being allowed to happen. We may not fix the big problems but we can get parents and children to do more, want more and relate differently with reading and education.

This is a community effort - it is an awakening of the role that communities must play to make education work in South Africa.


Mission
To contribute to the improvement of education and literacy in South Africa one word at a time; one child at a time through an annual national spelling competition

Vision
Through words we can raise confident children with the tools to dream, learn, create, break away boundaries and explore the world.