A student takes the Wiz Spell Bee test at Tarapore School on Wednesday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Students of Jamshedpur had fun with spellings and grammar at the Wiz Spell Bee contest, held over three days at Tarapore School in Agrico.

As many as 585 students from 21 schools of the steel city took part in the competition, which began on Tuesday.

Wiz Spell Bee, an annual event organised by Calcutta-based English Wizard Foundation, is being held in 380 schools in 14 states. However, due to lack to local co-ordination, schools in other cities of Jharkhand could not participate.

“I want to polish my English language skills because we require it in every field these days. My father encouraged me for this competition and I improved my vocabulary during the contest,” said Ayoniza Sinha, a Class III student of DBMS Kadma School.

The competition, which was open to Classes I to XII, is held on four levels. Students are categorised according to their class in six levels. They start at the school level and then compete at the city level.

Two students from each category are selected to represent their home state at the national level. The organisers charge a nominal fee for preparatory booklets designed for different levels.

The name Spell Bee is, however, a misnomer. Besides spellings, the competition tests the knowledge of prepositions, idioms and jumbled words. Students are evaluated on the basis of their pronunciation skills too.

The curriculum is designed like a comprehensive language development programme. This helps students learn, regardless of whether they win or not.