HAVING established itself as a pioneer in the use of newspapers in the
classroom, it made perfect sense for the New Straits Times to help
organise the country's first national spelling contest for schoolchildren.

It made sense for what this newspaper seeks to achieve with its
Newspaper in Education and School Sponsorship programmes. It also made
sense as a top-flight vehicle for corporate sponsorship, with brand
extension and social responsibility harnessed in pursuit of intellectual
excellence among the young. Above all, it made sense for schoolchildren.

Thanks to the ldol-Fantasia-Heboh phenomenon, today's youth has a
multiplicity of outlets for those with musical talent and dreams of
celebrity. Spell-It-RightTM, by contrast, is a reality contest for the
brainy.

It's about time they were paid some attention. They may not be that
conspicuous among their peers. They might be shy, introspective, bookish
children. They may be better at exams than sports. They'd rather read
than rock.

For all such low profiles, though, such youngsters tend to acquire
significant influence over the world they grow into; a world defined by
the truism that "if it isn't written, it didn't happen".

Spelling is no trivial pursuit. A spelling contest tests a particular
ability in order to recognise the meaning of that ability, which is
literacy.

The ability to spell is the basis of the ability to read, from which
all else flows.

Those who spell well are those who read the most and with the greatest
pleasure; those who enjoy reading as much for the words themselves as for
the information they convey, the stories they tell and the worlds they
shape.

This appreciation of words - how they sound, how they're spelt, what
they mean and how they're used - inevitably generates a powerful
vocabulary. And the power of a vocabulary arises from the access it
grants to the world and everything in it.

The ability to spell is the first criterion of the ability to learn.
Spelling is, literally, knowledge.

The objective of the Spell-It-RightTM challenge is two-fold: to spread
the word that words are great and who knows them wins, and to seek, find
and reward those young Malaysians who already know this.

At the outset of this challenge, involving over 4,000 students from
more than 1,000 primary and secondary schools nationwide, we must still
have faith in these prodigies being out there among Malaysia's six
million schoolchildren.

If they are, we will find them. If they are not, this challenge might
plant a seed or two for the future. In any case, we'll have improved our
knowledge of the state of Malaysian education.

This much, though, is certain. At the SIR national finals in Kuala
Lumpur this August, to be televised over TV3 after a rigorous six-month
nationwide search, we shall be certifying as national champions two of
the smartest kids in the land.

* Rehman Rashid is chairman, Content Committee, Spell-It-RightTM
Challenge