Macmillan unveils Dictionary Spell Vocab Challenger

Company press release, October 28, 2003

New Delhi

There is a crazy bug that's infected some select schools of Delhi and NCR: a spell-check bug! No, this is not that MS Word spell check tool on the PC but a real life spell-check bug. School canteens, buses, play fields, library…just about everywhere you find school kids checking out each other's spelling and vocabulary proficiency. The reason for this is a unique contest conceived by BTMC Incubator. Sponsored by Macmillan, the leading publishing house, the contest is christened - Macmillan Dictionary Spell Vocab Challenger.

The Challenger is addressing the students of standards VII, VIII and IX and has been designed in a manner that's involving and exciting. Over 15000 students drawn out of 50 leading schools undertook a Test in the preliminary round of the Challenger. All this to zero down to one student per School to compete in the next stage that is a zone-based affair. There are five zones and two best students from each of these zones will compete against each other in the finals that are scheduled in November. In a span of one year, the Challenger plans to make its mark in other cities as well, and can be rightly called a truly national contest.

There has been nothing such as this that's been attempted before. There have been contests based on spellings or there have games structured around vocabulary but a contest that checks out both has never been attempted before. The excitement that the Challenger has created is unprecedented. Highbrow schools such as CJM, DPS & Amity International have chosen to participate and support this contest. These schools along with most others made it mandatory for all the students to take the preliminary round test. No wonder LG Electronics has decided to come on board to support the Challenger.

Everybody is waiting to for the winner to emerge who not only will get a large chunk of books from Macmillan but also is likely to be made in to a mini celebrity. The media has been creating celebrities out of less cerebral folks so this one will at least be a well-deserved one! Another unique feature of the structuring of this contest is that the Master of Ceremonies is going to from among the teachers' fraternity and not some articulate TV personality. The reason given out by the organisers for this is that kids tend to get overawed by such a celebrity and take time in adjusting which, at times, costs them a few crucial points in a tightly contest event. Unique, undoubtedly and like the poster for the Challenger says - Take that!

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BehindTheMoon

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