Peat Foundation Using Spelling Bee for Leadership Training of Schoolchildren

Uchechukwu Nnaike

The Peat Phillips Foundation has restated its desire to prepare schoolchildren for leadership roles through its annual Spelling Bee Nigeria and the English Speaking Union UK affiliated programme for public speaking, The Young Orators.

The Team Lead at the foundation, Mr. Akinleye Olu-Phillips, said youths were more open to change and correction, making them the target of the annual educational competitions to train them in communications and leadership skills.

According to him, the spelling bee is dedicated to young children between the ages of eight and 15 where the winner gets the opportunity of an all-expense paid trip to the United States of America to feature at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Washington DC and the Intercontinental Spelling Bee Competition, Dubai.

“We also hold the franchise to the Global Read and Spell Contest exclusively in Nigeria. The Spelling Bee is in its ninth season in Nigeria, and as a Nigerian-centric brand, our official dictionary is Learn Africa Dictionary, which we are proudly taking to all international competitions that we are attending”, he said.

Olu-Phillips said the national finals of the spelling bee would hold in Lagos on July 8. Before the final competition, there would be a training programme for the finalists on the principles of leadership and nation-building.

Some leadership principles of the spelling bee include critical thinking and communication skills.​
Emphasising the importance of communication in leadership, Olu-Phillips regretted that some leaders had good intentions for the country, “but because they underplayed the importance of communication, they fail to understand the people and the people don’t understand them, so they just take decisions.”
He also appealed to corporate organisations to support the foundation to sustain the initiative.