The CIMA Spellmaster , a spelling competition introduced to promote and develop the English language skills to students island-wide in a fun and competitive manner, will be conducted this year as well, on a more elaborate scale announced, CIMA Regional Director Bradley Emerson at a press conference concluded in Colombo recently. With the year 2009 being declared the year of English and IT, the spellmaster programme will help fulfil the mission and the approach of the government to make English as a life skill in all corners of Sri Lanka.

Going with the branding of the popular reality shows, this year the competition will be branded as the "CIMA Spellmaster Season 2". The new concept launched last year witnessed Ronali Perera of Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya emerging as the Spellmaster from amongst 1,200 students from 240 schools. Asmara Agus of Crescent School International and U.Thakshanth of R. K. M. Sri Koneswara Hindu College, Trincomalee were placed 2nd and 3rd respectively. A noteworthy observation was that from the 20 finalists 15 were from the outstations and the final 6 consisted of only 2 students from Colombo. H. N. Gayana Madushani of Southlands' College, Galle, S. M. Gaajathry of Uduppiddy Girls' College, Jaffna and B. Kapilan of Hartley College, Jaffna secured the 4rth, 5th and 6th places respectiely.

Speaking about the programme, the Spellmaster 2008 Ronali said "being an avid reader from a very young age, I always referred the dictionary to check on any new word I came across in my reading.
I firmly believe that this practice resulted in a vast improvement in my vocabulary and helped me immensely to progress in the competition. Many of my friends also helped me by listing out words they thought were difficult as and when they came across any, which resulted in me being able to further enhance my vocabulary.

Continuing with here comments Ronali said "By taking part in this competition, I was also able to interact with students from many areas in Sri Lanka which in itself was a valuable experience. The thrills, suspense and the tension that surrounded the participants during the final stages of the competition were especially profound and these memories, I am sure, will remain and linger with me throughout the rest my life. I truly enjoyed taking part in this competition and take this opportunity to thank "CIMA-Sri Lanka Division" and the 'sponsors' for making this event the success it was.

Mr Glynn Lowth, Global President, CIMA who was the chief Guest a the launch said 'following on from the enormous success of last year's inaugural CIMA Spellmaster competition, I am delighted that CIMA Sri Lanka has decided to lay down the challenge once again. The competition is an excellent way of promoting literacy skills and I was extremely impressed by the quality of the entrants in last year's heats. Mr Lowth also thanked the Ministry of Education, and all those who supported this interesting initiative to help the young Sri Lankans to believe in them-selves. Good luck to everyone who takes part in Spellmaster season 02.'

Mr Bradley Emerson, Regional Director, South Asia & Middle East CIMA said "what we value most is the opportunity that was made available to children in the entire country, to be self confident and compete on a platform with those from more developed parts of the country. There is desire in every child. There is a dream in every parent. There is commitment in every school, and we look forward to experiencing the combination of emotions once again".

The competition will be held at a National level in collaboration with the Department of Education and will be conducted in all 25 districts. Any school will be eligible to participate in the competition and could do so by nominating a maximum of five students aged between 14 and 18 years and forwarding the application that could be downloaded from the CIMA web site www.cimaglobal.com

Prizes in excess Rs. 1 million are on offer, with winners at the district competitions also been billed to carry away cash awards.