MTN Ghana Foundation on Monday organised a "Spelling Bee Competition" for 60 pupils drawn from basic schools in the Bolgatanga Municipality in the Upper East Region.
The competition which was keenly contested was aimed at sharpening the intellect of the pupils and their daily interaction with vocabulary.
"This concept originated from the United States, and it is today being held all over the world in different languages and adaptation. Thus education is vital to the healthy growth and development of one's personality, and ultimately into a good citizen in future," Mr Tawfiq Moomen, MTN Territory Sales Controller in charge of Upper East stated.
He indicated that MTN had partnered Young Educators Foundation for the past three years in organising the Spelling Bee contest.
MTN had also contributed its Cooperate Social Responsibility in the Region including the construction of a 20- seater Information Communication Centre for Saint Charles Basic School in Bolgatanga, a 20 Seater ICT at Pwalugu and a Community and CHPS Centre for the Azuribisi Community.
It had also "refurbished the Zuarungu Health Centre and provided sponsorship packages to 20 schools in the Region.
Mr Moomen commended the people in the region for contributing to help MTN hit 11 million subscribers and said to reciprocate the trust reposed in the company's products it is awarding its customers with freebies across the various services offered by the company
The Regional Languages Coordinator for the Region, Mr Anaffo Tee Rashid, commended MTN Ghana for complimenting the efforts of the Ghana Education Service in the field of education and entreated other organisations to emulate the example.
He expressed worry about the falling standard of education and called for national debate to help resolve the problem.
Mr Rashid said due to the falling standards the cut off point to Senior High School this year was raised to aggregate 40.
This, he noted, is appalling and warned that if the problem is not addressed now it would jeopardise the country's human resource base in future.
The six top spellers took home exercise and reading books, MTN branding T-shirts and Caps. The other participants also took home "indomie" products.
The Top six who are expected to represent the Region at the national level are Sambilla Perpetual and Nafu Yin-nonyya of Fountain Gate Primary School, Akuure-Teng Fortune of Presbyterian Primary School, Atigdiro Francisca of the Saint Clement Primary School, Dzudzor Perpetual of the Straightway Educational Complex and Nyaba Gloria of the Methodist Junior High School.
Mr Emmanuel Afful who conducted the event commended the teachers in the Region and said so far the performance of the pupils were the best.
He said at the end of the national competition which would take place in Accra, the overall best would travel to the United States and be given awards.