CHAMPIONSHIP GUIDELINES

The Championship Guidelines To Follow For The KNSB Championship

The curated list below is the list of rules and regulations, terms and conditions and the admissibilty rules to be followed for the KNSB championship

ADMISSIBILITY

  • All Learners in Public, Private and National Schools in Kenya can register to participate in the National Spelling Bee Championship.
  • The National Spelling Bee Championship is open to all Primary School Learners.
  • To register for the National Spelling Bee Championship, pupils can register individually or through their School via www.kenyaspellingbee.com.
  • To participate, all Learners must pay a non-refundable fee to KNSB.
  • The Kenya National Spelling Bee may disqualify prior to or during the Championship any Speller who is not in compliance with any of the Admissibility Requirements.
  • KNSB Officials may—at any time before or after the conclusion of the National Spelling Bee Championship — require any Speller, Teacher or School who is found to have not been in compliance with any of the guidelines to forfeit any prizes, rank and other benefits accorded to the Speller, Teacher or School as a result of participation in the Kenya National Spelling Bee Championship.

Official Dictionary

  • The Oxford Advanced Learners English Dictionary is the official dictionary of the Championship. All words used in the Championship can be found in the said dictionary.
  • The dictionary will be the final say on any disputes involving spelling. In cases where American and British spelling differs, Spellers shall use British English.
  • Homonyms: If a word has a homonym, the pronouncer will note that and provide the definition of the desired word when he or she gives the word. If the pronouncer fails to do that, and the Speller provides the correct spelling of any of the homonyms, it will be considered correct.

GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

  • The Speller; or the Speller’s parent, legal guardian, or school official acting on the Speller's behalf–must not declare an academic classification higher than the class, grade or year the learner is in.
  • The Speller must not shun normal school activity to prepare for the Spelling Bee Championship.
  • Participants must be accompanied at all times by a Parent/legal Guardian or Teacher/School official appointed by the School to all the Championships, preferably of the same gender.
  • Once having been disqualified at any level of a Spelling Bee Championship, the Speller remains disqualified for the entire period of that particular Championship for the year.
  • The Speller must not have any first, second or third-degree relatives who are current employees of the Kenya National Spelling Bee.
  • Spellers must pronounce the letters as used in the English alphabet, not the sound of the letters or the names of the letters in any language that uses the Roman alphabet.
  • Prizes will be given out as per the communication on the competition poster.

RULES AND REGULATIONS

An official of KNSB will read the below rules aloud before the beginning of each Championship unless those present agree unanimously to waive the reading of the rules. Rules 26 to 30 will apply when Speller’s have tied in the top 3 positions;
  • The Pronouncer, other Judges and officials of KNSB will be in complete charge of the Championships. The official’s decisions will be final in all matters.
  • Any questions or protests about the spelling(s) or pronunciation of a word must be referred to the officials immediately a round has been completed (before the beginning of the next round).
  • No Protest will be entertained after the Championship has ended.
Below are the rules and regulations of the Spelling Bee Championships;
  • For each Championship there will be an arbiter, (one of the 3 judges) whose duty is to hear any protests as they arise and decide on them before the Championship continues.
  • All the words that will be used in the Championship will be chosen from the primary school syllabus books, story books, oxford dictionary and word lists compiled by KNSB officials.
  • Spellers may not receive help of any sort from other Spellers or members of the audience. If that occurs, the Speller(s) will be disqualified.
  • The Championship will be oral; contestants must spell the words orally and the use of pens and/or pencils and paper will not be allowed, except in special cases communicated beforehand.
  • There will be 4 rounds and 11 words in total during the Spelling Bee Championship.
  • In each round, Spellers will receive one word to spell at a time. If they spell it correctly, they continue to the next word. If incorrect, they are eliminated, and must leave the stage except on the warm up round where there will be no elimination on the first word given.
  • Round 1 shall have 2 words. The first word in round one shall be a warm up word and participants shall not be eliminated even if they spell the given word wrongly.
  • The 2nd word in round one shall be an elimination word and should the Speller get it wrong they shall be eliminated from the competition.
  • There shall be 2 words in round two, 3 words in round 3 and 4 words in round 4.
  • Round 4 shall be the final and sudden death round and all words in this round shall be outside the usual word lists. These words will be picked by KNSB from a wide range of textbooks within the grade 1 to 9 syllabus and the oxford dictionary.
  • Each word shall be spelled within 20 seconds.
  • Contestants may pronounce their words before spelling them, after spelling them, or not at all.
  • For all words with capitals, the Speller must indicate the Capital Letter. For example, Mombasa the Speller must say “Capital M–o–m–b–a–s–a.”
  • Spellers must spell each letter. They may not use “double _” or any other shorthand in their spelling. For example, ‘book’ must be spelled as “b–o–o–k, not b–double o–k.”
  • Once a contestant has begun to spell a word, he or she may not ask for a word to be re- pronounced, defined or used in a sentence.
  • Once a contestant has begun to spell a word, he or she may not ask for a word to be re- pronounced, defined or used in a sentence.
  • Also, having started to spell a word, a contestant will not be given any opportunity to change letters already pronounced. A Speller may retrace provided that letters and their sequence are not changed in retracing.
  • Apostrophes, hyphens and other punctuations are required where necessary for example o’clock must be spelled as “o–apostrophe–c–l–o–c–k.”
  • If a word is unclear to a contestant, he or she may ask for the word to be re-pronounced, defined or used in a sentence, unless the word is a homophone in which case the Pronouncer must give the definition and an example sentence without being asked.
  • The contestant must give the spelling of the word as defined, not a homophone of the word.