By Malina Jeya Palannews@nst.com.my<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n KUALA LUMPUR: With her hands clasped, her nervousness was obvious as she waited for the spell master to announce the word to be spelled. <\/p>\n The competition was intense but 11-year-old Kashwini Arumugam confidently spelled the winning word, "monstrous", enunciating it carefully. <\/p>\n There was loud applause as she was announced the winner of the first national spelling championship yesterday.<\/p>\n "I'm so happy. Some of the words were difficult but I pulled through," she said. <\/p>\n The Year Five pupil of SK (P) Methodist, Kuantan, said her secret lay in her voracious appetite for reading. <\/p>\n "I read about five books a week, most of them story- books, such as Enid Blyton and my favourite Harry Potter books.<\/p>\n "I love reading because it improves my vocabulary and broadens my knowledge." <\/p>\n She said her friends and teacher helped her practise for the competition.<\/p>\n Her mother, Ranitha Rajaratnam, said she was proud of her younger daughter's achievement.<\/p>\n "I'm so happy for her. She is a responsible and helpful child. <\/p>\n "I don't have to nag her to do her homework or read."<\/p>\n Ranitha said she started introducing books to her daughters when they were 4.<\/p>\n "I never bought them toys. Instead, I gave them books as birthday presents and rewards for doing well in school. <\/p>\n "I believe that reading is important and parents should inculcate this habit in their children," she said.<\/p>\n The competition, themed the "Knowledge Discovery Spell- ing Competition", was held at Sekolah Wawasan, USJ 15, Subang Jaya, and involved 26 children from 18 schools nationwide.<\/p>\n Aifos media chairman E.A. Scheers said the competition was organised with the Education Ministry to improve the standard of English and general knowledge.<\/p>\n Education Ministry deputy director-general Md Hasidin Zaini said he hoped the competition would be an annual event for youngsters as it would develop their confidence in English.<\/p>\n First prize winner Kashwini walked away with a trophy, a Champs hamper worth RM250, a three-day stay at Langkawi Resort and a two-year subscription to Knowledge Discovery magazine.<\/p>\n Runner-up 10-year-old Tan Zer Tong received a Champs hamper worth RM200, a two-year subscription to Knowledge Discovery Magazine and a three-day stay at Bukit Merah Laketown Resort.<\/p>\n Certificates were given to all participants, including consolation prize winners, who also received Champs hampers worth RM100 and a one-year subscription to the magazine. <\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bookworm spells her way to winning national contest championship By Malina Jeya Palannews@nst.com.my source KUALA LUMPUR: With her hands clasped, her nervousness was obvious as she waited for the spell master to announce the word to be spelled. The competition was intense but 11-year-old Kashwini Arumugam confidently spelled the winning word, "monstrous", enunciating it carefully. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[19,120],"class_list":["post-647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indian","tag-education","tag-ppp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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